A common approach to reduce the Euler equations’ complexity for the simulation and optimization of gas networks is to neglect small terms that contribute little to the overall equations. An example is the inertia term of the momentum equation, which is said to be of negligible size under real-world operating conditions. However, this justification has always only been based on experience or single sets of artificial data points. This study closes this gap by presenting a large-scale empirical evaluation of the absolute and relative size of the inertia term when operating a real-world gas network. Our data consists of three years of fine-granular state data of one of the largest gas networks in Europe, featuring over 6,000 pipes with a total length of over 10,000 km. We found that there are only 120 events in which a subnetwork consisting of multiple pipes has an inertia term of high significance for more than three minutes. On average, such an event occurs less often than once every ten days. Therefore, we conclude that the inertia term is indeed negligible for real-world transient gas network control problems.

减少欧拉方程在天然气网络模拟和优化中的复杂性的一种常见方法是忽略对整个方程贡献很小的小项。一个例子是动量方程的惯性项，据说在实际操作条件下它的大小可以忽略不计。但是，这种理由始终仅基于经验或单组人工数据点。本研究通过对运行真实世界天然气网络时惯性项的绝对和相对大小进行大规模实证评估来弥补这一差距。我们的数据包括欧洲最大的天然气网络之一的三年细粒度状态数据，其中包含 6,000 多根管道，总长度超过 10,000 公里。我们发现只有 120 个事件中由多个管道组成的子网具有超过三分钟的高显着性惯性项。平均而言，此类事件发生的频率低于每十天一次。因此，我们得出结论，对于现实世界的瞬态天然气网络控制问题，惯性项确实可以忽略不计。