Problem Statement

Trying to get the Aspen hydraulics simple pipe segment to calculate the fluid mass flow across a large
pressure drop returns incorrect pressure profile

Solution
In the example file attached you will notice that the Aspen Hydraulics sub-flowsheet has a single pipe
modeled with only pressure as the boundary specifications. This is the normal workflow to enable Aspen
hydraulics implementing a mass flow calculation, i.e, provide only the pressures of the inlet stream and
the outlet stream attached to the pipe.
The boundary pressure specs are such that the user is anticipating a steep pressure drop across an 80
km pipe, hence simulating choked flow conditions across a long distance. Inlet pressure is at 5000 KPa
while exit pressure is set at 100 KPa. You will notice that in the snapshot below, the pipe pressure profile
shows a steady decrease along the length of the pipe, until about 40km. After that, the pressure drops to
100 KPa, which is the exit pressure, and remains constant for the remaining length of the pipe. See
snapshot 1 below. This same model built with the Aspen Hysys pipe segment would typically give a
choked flow error, but the Aspen hydraulics rigorous solver will converge the pipe, as shown in Pipe
flow1.hsc.

Snapshot 1

To improve the solver and generate a more realistic pressure drop profile, go to the Steady State tab of
the Aspen Hydraulics subflowsheet and reduce the Min. Jacobian flow step size, to say 0.001kg/h. This is
implemented in Pipe flow2.hsc. This is shown in snapshot 2 below, where the pressure profile shows a
more consistent decrease in pressure until the pipe exit.
Snapshot 2

Please note that the pipe feed stream still needs a known temperature and stream reference conditions,
as is the usual workflow in setting up a Aspen hydraulics flowsheet.

Keywords
Aspen Hydraulics, flow step size, pressure drop profile, hydraulics pipe, choke flow.