Pipeline operators rely on the accuracy of CPMs to make decisions on column separation and to avoid the masking of a leak during column separation. Vanmok has developed Columnfinder™ to accurately predict column separation for all the possible scenarios that may cause it to occur in liquid hydrocarbon transportation pipelines.
Column Finder monitors the hydraulic state of the system and calculates the times at which any point in the pipeline undergoes a pressure drop that reaches vapor pressure.
Once this inception moment is calculated anywhere in the system, the Columnfinder™ keeps monitoring the hydraulics of the system by adding the simultaneous solution of the conservation laws of mass and momentum and energy for the formed vapor phase, along with the similar governing equations for the liquid phase. This approach guarantees the correct capture of the evolution of the column separation on top of the captured inception moment. Columnfinder™ allows monitoring of the bubbles forming inside the pipeline, and the rate by which they evolve over time and space, which provides accurate real-time information about their size and location, as well as their life and death.