While looped networks are uncommon in Oil & Gas production and injection systems, they occur frequently in processing facilities where they are formed whenever a stream is recycled. For topsides’ processing facilities, recycles are commonplace and are introduced when, for example, condensate from a compressor suction drum is fed back into a production separator.
Maximus general approach to network modelling means that it is also able to solve looped systems. While these looped systems are generally more difficult to solve than systems without loops and can confound less sophisticated simulators, Maximus copes very well. The reason for this is that Maximus models of networks are based on a complete set of equations founded on the mass, momentum and energy equations. Moreover, these equations have been generalised to work equally well for forwards and reverse flows and as a result Maximus’ Network Solver is able to reverse branches at intermediate iterations so providing for continuous behaviour on the way to the solution.
An example of a looped system with four loops is presented below. Maximus solves this system and other loop systems we have considered very efficiently. This particular example takes a couple of seconds on a standard Laptop with a 2 GHz Pentium 4 processor.
