SIRGGAS is a computer program for simulation of the steady state and transient behavior of single phase fluid (principally gas) in pipeline networks. SIRGGAS is in use by most operators of high pressure long distance natural gas pipelines in Australia. Recently SIRGGAS has been installed on the Leeds and Northrup Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) computer at the Australian Gas Light Company control centre in Sydney. Each minute the SCADA provides pressures, flows, etc measured at Moomba, Newcastle and other places on the NSW gas pipeline network. SIRGGAS uses this information to simulate the previous minute. Thus an up-to-date simulation of the network is available at all times. The purpose of this is
to provide to the operator up to 300 quantities that are calculated by SIRGGAS, many of which such as linepack (mass of gas present in the pipeline), are not easily measured; and
to provide a starting state to simulate the operation of the network over the next 16 days. This is done routinely once each day, and at other times as requested by the operator. The facility is designed for routine operator use and all interaction with the model is through normal or specially developed SCADA functions. The development and use of the SIROGAS facility is described and comparisons between measured, Tracking and Prediction results made which show that when the model receives valid data, good agreement is obtained with actual operation. Several events resulting in invalid data being passed to the model are discussed.
William J.Turner Senior Project Manager CSIRO Division of Mineral and Process Engineering, PMB 5, Menai, NSW 2234 Australia Bill Turner graduated with honours in theoretical physics from the University of Tasmania in 1961. After working in the UK and Canada, he became immersed in research and design for nuclear reactors with the Australian Atomic Energy Commission. In 1982 this led him to apply his mathematical methods developed for nuclear reactor ‘loss of coolant accidents’ to gas flow in pipeline networks. He and this activity were transferred to the principal Australian government research body CSIRO in 1982 where he heads the Fluid Mechanics area in the Division of Mineral and Process Engineering. Since then he on behalf of CSIRO has supplied software and other assistance to the gas pipeline industry in Australia, as well as supervising a wide range of fluid mechanics theoretical and experimental work for the Australian mineral industry. Prue A. Maguire Scientist CSIRO Division of Mineral and Process Engineering, PMB 5, Menai, NSW 2234 Australia Prue Maguire graduated from Macquarie University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and computer science. Since 1987 she has been working for CSIRO and is involved in the programming and development of software for the simulation of gas pipelines. Chris Smith Leeds and Northrup (Australia) 18 Mandible St. Alexandria, NSW 2015 Australia Chris Smith holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Sydney
