When changing the modes of oil and oil products pumping, there are technological switches between the main pumping units. To ensure the necessary flow direction of the transported medium, to exclude its flow between the main pumping units and to protect the pipeline equipment from hydraulic shock, reverse gates of various design versions are used. The development and modernization of the Russian pipeline system poses the task of increasing the volume of oil and oil products pumping, which is achieved, among other things, through the use of pipelines of large diameters up to DN 1200 and high pressures developed by pumping units – up to PN 10.0 MPa and above. Ensuring the smooth operation of the pipeline is impossible without the use of technological, highly reliable equipment, including reverse gates. At large nominal diameters and high pumping pressures, the closing of the back-gate locking element is accompanied by a blow to the contact surface of the body seat, due to the impact of the transported medium on the locking element, with a force of more than 107N. The impact of such force has a destructive effect on the parts and components of the equipment and the pipeline as well. In the event of a hydraulic shock, it is difficult to predict the closing forces of the locking element. Existing design solutions for damping are quite complex, metal-intensive and, most importantly, do not have a resource comparable to the body parts of the back gate. If the main parts of the back gate withstand operation for more than 50 years, the complex damping devices can fail after several operations, which can lead to an emergency, environmental damage and stop the transportation of oil or oil products for an indefinite period.
This article describes the technical solutions aimed at improving the environmental safety of operation, service life of equipment parts and reliability, as well as the prevention of failures in the operation of back gates operated on oil and oil products pipelines, water pipelines and heating networks. In particular, the described method of damping the impact of the contact sealing surface of the locking element on the contact surface of the body seat reduces the metal content of the equipment and increases the manufacturability. The gate Assembly that implements this method of damping simplifies the design of the equipment and eliminates the need to perform technological holes in the body parts for the shaft output, thereby eliminating the possibility of environmental damage during the failure of the damper and depressurization of the equipment.
References
1. Lisin Yu.V., Neganov D.A., Surikov V.I., Gumerov K.M., Research of changes of pipeline metal properties during operation: summary of results and prospective developments of Ufa scolarly tradition (In Russ.), Nauka i tehnologii truboprovodnogo transporta nefti i nefteproduktov = Science & Technologies: Oil and Oil Products Pipeline Transportation, 2017, V. 7, no. 2, pp. 22–30.
2. Slepnev V.N., Maksimenko A.F., The basic principles of building a quality management system for prevention, localization and liquidation of effects of accidents at pipeline transport facilities (In Russ.), Nauka i tehnologii truboprovodnogo transporta nefti i nefteproduktov = Science & Technologies: Oil and Oil Products Pipeline Transportation, 2018, V. 8, no. 4, pp. 456–468, DOI: 10.28999/2541-9595-2018-8-4-456-467
