DOI: 10.21276/sjet.2017.5.9.3

Pages: 461-472

This paper proposes the application of particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique to oil and gas pipeline under spatially varying corrosion defects. The PSO results show that to keep the oil flowing in the pipe and still minimize the corrosion rate the pipeline system should be at its optimum performance values, that is, the optimum corrosion rate obtained from the PSO is 0.0277mm/year and this is achievable at optimum water cut of 11.41%, temperature of 30.750C, pH value of 5.66, pipe age not more than 10years, fluid flow velocity of 2.69m/s, partial pressure of CO2 at 0.2MPa and hydrogen sulphide concentration not more than 0.1mol/L. The PSO results also show that higher temperatures and age of pipe will drastically increase the corrosion rate. From the PSO results, it is clear that the pipe thickness will be reduced by a maximum of 0.277mm and a minimum of 0.1579mm after 10 to 50years of continuous operation.