Technological pipelines dynamic stability of buster compressor stations on the basis of the results of advanced vibration studies and calculations of acoustic oscillations
The paper discusses the results of extended vibration studies and calculations of gas acoustic vibrations performed for the technological pipelines of the booster compressor station (BCS) of the gas production company of PJSC "Gazprom". The necessity of the work was caused by the fact that during the BCS operation, elevated vibration levels of shut-off and control valves (SCV) were recorded both on the connecting piping (CP) of gas compressing units (GCU) and in the sites quite remote from the GCU. According to the results of extended vibration surveys, it was found that the recorded vibration was a result of gas pulsations in the pipeline system caused by the occurrence of acoustic resonant vibrations in the sections of CP with waste-free branches. Such wasteless branches in collector systems can be presented by, for example, sections, connected with the collectors of GCU inlet/outlet pipelines with closed taps. These fluctuations are called "dead ends". The peculiarity of deadlock oscillations is their possible elimination either by changing the operating mode of the station, or by changing the configuration of the pipeline system. Change of the operation mode to ensure the vibration resistance of the SCV is often impossible due to the operating conditions of the compressor station (CS). The SCV configuration at the operating compressor station cannot be changed without its partial or complete shut-down. Therefore, the tasks of SCV dynamic stability provision should be solved at a project development stage. However, for one reason or another, this is not always done, or is done at an inappropriate level. The dynamic stability of the SCV of the BCS, considered in the present paper, was calculated at the design stage. The paper presents some results of diagnostic vibration studies and recommendations for the reconstruction of the pipeline system, obtained on the basis of gas-dynamic calculations.