Compressible Flow Modeling Occurring in a Depressurization Process

The depressurization process is the emptying of one tank to another one through a pipe network. In order to optimize the design of pipes and tanks, a good knowledge of the gas flow behavior is required. The modeling of compressible flows with a Mach number near 1 is quite challenging and simplifications are necessary to create an efficient numerical tool. Thus, a simple model is developed here, using COMSOL Multiphysics^® and the “Non-Isothermal Pipe Flow” interface. A theoretical validation is made by confrontation with analytical results. Then, using experimental results in multiple configurations, the model is adjusted to make it predictive.