Study for Hydrogen Migration Characteristics in the Elbow of a Hydrogen-Doped Natural Gas Pipeline under Normal Transport and Shutdown Conditions

Abstract

During the transportation of hydrogen-doped natural gas (HCNG), there is a risk of uneven distribution of hydrogen at the elbow, causing hydrogen damage to the pipeline. Therefore, based on the basic principles of computational fluid dynamics, this paper uses a hybrid model to describe the flow process of HCNG in an elbow. The results show that under normal transportation, the hydrogen volume fraction varies within 0.2% with the influence of pressure, flow velocity, temperature, hydrogen volume fraction, and undulating angle, and the uneven distribution of hydrogen in the elbow can be ignored. However, in the shutdown state, the hydrogen slip rate gradually slows down, the hydrogen volume fraction is distributed in a horizontal concentration gradient along the vertical direction, and it gradually accumulates at the height of the undulating tube. The difference in hydrogen volume fraction reaches 50%, and the stratification phenomenon is obvious.