The simulation technology is one of the key technologies for the design, operation and management of natural gas pipeline networks. As the natural gas pipeline network is large, complex, and intelligent, as well as has multiple gas sources, the simulation technology is playing an increasingly important role. Therefore, we make literature review of the research progresses of natural gas pipeline transient simulation, from the aspects of mathematical model, solution method, and accelerated simulation. Based on the analyses, the results of previous researches are summarized, and the future research work is proposed. At present, the calculation accuracy and robustness of the simulation technology meet the engineering requirements of natural gas pipeline, and the simulation of small and medium-sized pipeline network is fast. However, to support the construction of large-scale intelligent pipeline network, further research on multi gas mixture transportation, artificial intelligence and parallel simulation is required.