Zitao Jiang

The co-existence of high-speed railways and buried pipelines may lead to stray current interference, posing a serious threat to pipeline safety. Existing protection design usually focuses only on the most severe interference case and does not adequately consider the dynamic variation caused by changing train positions. In this study, a numerical model of a high-speed railway–pipeline system was established to analyze the AC interference characteristics under different train positions. The midpoint positions between the traction power substation and the first autotransformer station (TPSS–AT1) and between the first and second autotransformer stations (AT1–AT2) were identified as the critical train locations for dynamic AC interference mitigation design. The novelty of this study lies not in developing a new electromagnetic solver but in identifying representative train positions for dynamic AC interference mitigation design and establishing a simplified grounding-bed design strategy for single-train operating conditions. Based on these two representative cases, the proposed strategy can satisfy the protection requirements for all train positions under the single-train operating condition. The results provide a practical reference for pipeline AC interference protection in similar railway–pipeline systems.

By monitoring the alternating interference voltage at the intersections and parallels of gas pipelines with high-speed railways, the alternating voltage between the high-speed railway track supports and the ground, the alternating ground voltage gradient along parallel and perpendicular high-speed railway tracks, and the timing of train passages, the interference patterns caused by high-speed railways on pipelines are analyzed. A numerical model was developed to elucidate interference mechanisms. The conclusions indicate that the interference caused by the parallel and intersecting presence of high-speed railways and pipelines is far greater than that caused solely by the intersection of railways and pipelines. The peak alternating voltage interference on pipelines occurs at the insulation joints of the pipelines, the positions of the pipelines corresponding to the high-speed railway track circuits (AT), and the positions of the pipelines corresponding to the passage of trains. The alternating interference caused by high-speed railway lines on pipelines involves both resistive coupling interference and electromagnetic induction coupling interference, with the latter dominating.