Compensation of Temperature Deformations of Gas Pipelines

In conditions of gas pipelines operation, significant longitudinal deformations may occur at the sections adjacent to the receiving/ launching chambers of pig and diagnostic equipment. These deformations, caused by stress and temperature fluctuations, lead to undesirable deformations and damage of piping elements. To reduce the magnitude of longitudinal deformations the device of expansion joints is proposed. Geometric parameters of the expansion joint are determined based on the results of strength and stability calculations of the gas pipelines. The use of the software package START allowed to simulate the behavior of the pipeline before and after installation of the expansion joint and to analyze changes in longitudinal deformations.  An important part of the work is the methodology of calculation justification of the necessity to install such units to reduce longitudinal deformations. Optimization of the expansion joint design and calculation of its parameters contributes to the reliability of gas pipeline systems.