Optimization of a Long Distance Oil Pipeline

by Michael Esteban

Submitted : Spring 2011

The aim is to minimize the operating cost of a long distance oil pipeline, which is based upon the costs associated with the number of pumps, “N”, and the pipe diameter, “D”. In this system both “N” and “D” are indirectly related by constraints on daily volume and allowed pressure drop between stations, making this a single variable optimization problem. We use differentiation techniques of Calculus to find values of “N” and “D” which minimize the Total Operating Cost. Also we compute the Reynold’s number of the optimized system to verify that our assumption of turbulent flow was justified.

[ Back ]