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Abstract
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New polymeric pipes have been used to overcome difficulties created by metal pipes in gas transmission lines
such as corrosion and leakage. In this work, diffusion and solubility cells are designed to determine the diffusivity
and possible leakage of methane and ethane gases in the glass-reinforced epoxy (GRE) composite. A composite
sample with a diameter of 5.95 mm and thickness of 1.40 mm to determine the diffusivity and a composite
powder to estimate the gas solubility are used. The experiments are done under temperatures varied from 25 to
40 ℃ and a pressure of 20 bar. The results show that the diffusivity of both gases increases with increasing
temperature; while gas solubility decreases. The highest diffusion coefficient of methane and ethane are observed
at 8.23 × 10 11 and 7.94 × 10 11 m2/s at 40 ℃, respectively. Moreover, novel correlations for estimating gas
diffusion coefficient and mass flow rate in terms of temperature are developed based on the experimental data
with the correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.98 and 1 and the average relative error percent (AREP) less than 4.5%
and 0.5%, respectively. Interestingly, CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) results show a good consistency with
experimental data for gas concentration profiles through the composite with AREP ranges of 1.95–15.78%.
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