AFT in the Oil & Gas Industry

While fluctuations in oil's profitability are out of your control, using AFT software to ensure your system operates both efficiently and reliably helps you keep a margin over the competition. Upstream, midstream, downstream, onshore or off, AFT software can help your flow get to where it needs to go.

Company: Hatch

Problem: A water injection system for an offshore floating production storage and offloading facility had waterhammer and line pack potential due to significantly long pipelines.

Product Used: AFT Impulse. A steady-state model was calibrated to field data. Four primary operating cases were considered, with sensitivity varying flow and valve closure time. 

Solution: The engineer developed a surge mitigation strategy with AFT Impulse when extending valve closure time failed to reduce surge. Analysis discovered peak pressure was consistently larger than the Joukowsky predicted pressure rise. Closing the upstream valve before the downstream valve avoided line pack.

Company: CB&I

Problem: A 60% increase in LNG pipeline throughput required hydraulic analysis. The increased flow created additional potential for waterhammer and its resulting forces

Product Used: AFT Impulse models of both pre-expansion and post-expansion were created. The Visual Report and isometric drawing mode made results easy to present.

Solution: Increased flow did not cause surge pressure to exceed allowable pressure. A stress analysis from Impulse forces confirmed existing supports were sufficient.

Company: MegChem

Problem: Control valve closures at a refinery storage facility had significant potential for catastrophic surge.  Hand calculations resulted in impractically long valve closure time.

Product Used: AFT Fathom and AFT Impulse. AFT Impulse was used to find a more reasonable valve closure strategy. AFT Fathom was used to identify a mis-sized valve and determine other system characteristics.

Solution: An overpressure control philosophy involving valve closure strategy, pump tripping, and pipe re-rating was implemented. Excessively conservative designs were avoided with confidence.

Company: Fluor

Problem: A major facility upgrade changed the requirements on a cooling system. Engineers needed to size equipment, calculate temperatures, and evaluate surge to comply with ASME and AWWA standards.

Product Used: AFT Fathom and AFT Impulse. AFT Fathom was used to model steady-state for sizing and temperatures. AFT Impulse was used to evaluate surge, where transient cavitation was a significant issue.

Solution: Fluor performed cooling water sizing for multi-billion dollar refinery expansion, saving time and effort by importing AFT Fathom model into AFT Impulse for cavitation analysis. The project was completed on budget.