Investigating the Effect of Coriolis Force In A Vibrating Pipeline

Abstract

Pipelines conveying fluids are bound to vibrate during operation and if not properly handled from the design stage, there will be tendency of failure. This paper aims at studying the behavior of a pipe under the influence of a coriolis force for when conveying crude oil and natural gas only. A pipe under fixed ends condition was considered using finite element method based on Hamilton principle to determine the deformation mode shape behavior pattern, and this was validated using ANSYS software simulations. It was observed that the pipe exhibited the same behavioral pattern for crude oil when Coriolis force was enabled in both the finite element method and the ANSYS software simulation method. On the other hand, it was observed that the pipe exhibited the same behavioral pattern for crude oil when coriolis force was not enabled in both the finite element method and the ANSYS software simulation method, though the ANSYS simulation method tend to exhibit a more uniform and accurate pattern than the finite element method because of the two elements considered in the finite element method. It is a known fact that the higher the number of elements, the more accurate the finite element results would be. In view of this limitation, it was recommended that for similar works to be carried out in future, the number of elements should be increased more than two for more accurate results.