Dynamic Modeling of Capsule Separator for Control of Hydraulic Capsule Pipelines

Abstract

Hydraulic capsule pipelines concepts are novel as compared to existing commercial pipeline systems. The complexity of such novel systems places greater demands on sensing, automation, and control strategy design for such systems as compared to existing commercial pipeline systems. These issues, as well as hydraulic design automation and control strategies, are reported. A novel capsule separator design has also been proposed to ensure reliable functioning of ‘booster’ stations for such pipelines. Detailed dynamic modeling of the proposed capsule separator is performed for generating design and control guidelines. Validation of the overall hydraulic capsule pipeline design and control, and limited validation of the proposed capsule separator subsystem, are provided using a prototype hardware computer controlled pipeline model.