Transient simulation of gas pipeline networks using intelligent methods

• An intelligent method is proposed for transient simulation of gas pipeline networks.
• Three basic functions are defined for transient analysis.
• An intelligent tool called PSOGSA is used for optimization.
• Numerical results confirm that the proposed algorithm is accurate and efficient.

Simulation of gas pipeline network has an important role in control and design of the natural gas transmission system. Transient simulation provides several advantages in energy consumption optimization where compressor stations variables are manipulated regarding to contract pressures. In this paper, a novel approach based on intelligent algorithms and three basic functions is proposed for dynamic simulation of gas pipeline networks. An optimization tool is used to find the inlet flow rates of the network. If the inlet flow rates are calculated correctly, all network variables can be computed using three basic functions. In each sample of time, the optimization tool called particle swarm optimization gravitational search algorithm (PSOGSA) offers some candidate solutions for inlet flow rates of the network. For each of these candidate solutions, the network is analyzed using three basic functions and then, outlet pressures are calculated. The differences between calculated outlet pressures and the reference values are considered as an error or fitness function of optimization tool. Finally, the optimization tool finds the optimum inlet flow rates at that sample of time which lead to minimum error. The proposed method is straight forward and easy to implement while its error percentage is near zero and converges faster than some well-known optimization algorithms. Numerical results confirm the accuracy and efficiency of the suggested algorithm.