Effect of Asymmetric Branches on Solid Particles Distribution in Central Gas Stations (CGSs)

Natural gas flows always contain solid particles in various points of transport and distribution lines. These particles can accumulate where the passages become narrow, whereas in regulators and gas burner devices, this might cause some problems. Therefore, natural gas should be filtered and then decompressed in central gas stations (CGSs) before entering into the pipelines of city or residential areas. Therefore, the kind and the number of filters should be determined, depending on particle accumulation. In the present work, Lagrangian method is used for studying the accumulation and deposition of solid particles in a pipeline with asymmetric branches. Moreover, the effect of some parameters, such as Stokes number, Reynolds number, and symmetric branches on the amount of outlet particle accumulation, is investigated. The effect of curvature ratio on the penetration of particles in a 90° bend as well as the effect of Reynolds number upon particle deposition is evaluated and the results have been compared with the available data from the open literature. Finally, the dependence of volume portion of particles is shown with flow rate. The results show that the dependency is higher at high flow velocities. In all current cases, particles do not affect the flow field due to their low volume portion.