Understand station traversal

Station traversal is a special type of traversal supported by the Flow Network because different groups of nodes, segments, and devices attached can be grouped into belonging to a station. A traversal can be performed against a station rather than a single topographical element, specifying the traversal to travel either upstream, downstream, or both.

The station traversal also differs from a normal traversal in that it will report stations rather than injection or delivery devices. This is useful when attempting to determine the next upstream or downstream station on a pipeline.

In the example below, the devices inside the Flow Network model have been divided into four different stations. If product were flowing from the left to the right, and a traversal upstream were performed at Station 3, then the product would return through Station 2, and then Station 1.

A station is only reported back by the station traversal function if:

• An open segment can be reached inside the station.

• The segment reached has at least one device attached to it.

The result of this rule is that if a station has all of its suction and discharge valves closed, the station traversal will not report its existence. The benefit is that stations that are bypassed will not be discovered using station traversal and traversal will stop once a station that is blocking the line is encountered.