Fault Tree Analysis of Natural Gas Pipelines Failure

Natural gas pipelines failure in chemical process, due to external destruction, corrosion and material defects, such as pipeline failure, often causes accidents, which threaten people's life and property safety and the environment. The characteristics and storage conditions of natural gas in pipelines are firstly analyzed. Then the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) model for natural gas pipelines failure is established. And then the minimal cut sets and minimal path sets are analyzed by the analysis of fault tree. The importance degree of the incident in fault tree is also analyzed. In the end, the countermeasures and suggestions for natural gas pipelines are presented to prevent and control natural gas pipelines accidents. And then the application of the FTA model in risk assessment is discussed. The research results might provide a universal method for risk assessment for natural gas pipelines.

Keywords: Natural gas pipelines; Fault Tree Analysis model; Countermeasures; Risk assessment