Characteristics of the Interfacial Wave Velocity on the Liquid Film of Annular Flow for Gas-Oil-Water Three-Phase Flow in a Horizontal Pipe

2011 ◽  
Vol 402 ◽  
pp. 816-819
Author(s):  
Hai Qin Wang ◽  
Yong Wang ◽  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Jin Hai Gong ◽  
Zhen Yu Wang

The experiments were conducted in a horizontal multiphase flow test loop (50mm inner diameter, 40m long) and the cross-correlation technology was used for the study of the characteristics of the interfacial wave velocity about two types of annular flow regimes (AN║DO/W and AN║DW/O) for gas-oil-water three-phase flow. The results show that the interfacial wave velocity on the liquid film of AN║DO/W flow pattern and AN║DW/O flow pattern all increases with the increase of gas superficial velocity and liquid superficial velocity on the condition of fixed ratio of oil and water flow rates, but the difference is that the increase is a linear monotonic increase for AN║DO/W flow pattern and a non-linear increase for AN║DW/O flow pattern, and the liquid superficial velocity makes a larger contribution than the gas superficial velocity. The interfacial wave velocity also increases with the increase of input water cut in liquid at different gas superficial velocities under the conditions of liquid superficial velocity fixed.

Author(s):  
Jose Zaghloul ◽  
Michael Adewumi ◽  
M. Thaddeus Ityokumbul

The transport of unprocessed gas streams in production and gathering pipelines is becoming more attractive for new developments, particularly those is less friendly enviroments such as deep offshore locations. Transporting gas, oil, and water together from wells in satellite fields to existing processing facilities reduces the investments required for expanding production. However, engineers often face several problems when designing these systems. These problems include reduced flow capacity, corrosion, emulsion, asphaltene or wax deposition, and hydrate formation. Engineers need a tool to understand how the fluids travel together, quantify the flow reduction in the pipe, and determine where, how much, and the type of liquid that would from in a pipe. The present work provides a fundamental understanding of the thermodynamics and hydrodynamic mechanisms of this type of flow. We present a model that couples complex hydrodynamic and thermodynamic models for describing the behavior of fluids traveling in near-horizontal pipes. The model incorporates: • A hydrodynamic formulation for three-phase flow in pipes. • A thermodynamic model capable of performing two-phase and three-phase flow calculations in an accurate, fast and reliable manner. • A new theoretical approach for determining flow pattern transitions in three-phase (gas-oil-water) flow, and closure models that effectively handle different three-phase flow patterns and their transitions. The unified two-fluid model developed herein is demonstrated to be capable of handling systems exhibiting two-phase (gas-water and gas-oil) and three-phase (gas-oil-water) flow. Model predictions were compared against field and experimental data with excellent matches. The hydrodynamic model allows: 1) the determination of flow reduction due to the condensation of liquid(s) in the pipe, 2) assessment of the potential for forming substances that might affect the integrity of the pipe, and 3) evaluation of the possible measures for improving the deliverability of the pipeline.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2077
Author(s):  
Guishan Ren ◽  
Dangke Ge ◽  
Peng Li ◽  
Xuemei Chen ◽  
Xuhui Zhang ◽  
...  

A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the flow pattern transitions and water holdup during oil–water–gas three-phase flow considering both a horizontal section and a vertical section of a transportation pipe simultaneously. The flowing media were white mineral oil, distilled water, and air. Dimensionless numbers controlling the multiphase flow were deduced to understand the scaling law of the flow process. The oil–water–gas three-phase flow was simplified as the two-phase flow of a gas and liquid mixture. Based on the experimental data, flow pattern maps were constructed in terms of the Reynolds number and the ratio of the superficial velocity of the gas to that of the liquid mixture for different Froude numbers. The original contributions of this work are that the relationship between the transient water holdup and the changes of the flow patterns in a transportation pipe with horizontal and vertical sections is established, providing a basis for judging the flow patterns in pipes in engineering practice. A dimensionless power-law correlation for the water holdup in the vertical section is presented based on the experimental data. The correlation can provide theoretical support for the design of oil and gas transport pipelines in industrial applications.


2019 ◽  
Vol 796 ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Waqas Yaqub ◽  
Rajashekhar Pendyala ◽  
Risza Rusli

The gas, oil and water co-current flow in pipes either flow in separate layers or in the form of a mixture. Other than gas, the liquid mixtures are common during the transportation of oil. In liquid mixtures, one liquid acts as a continuous phase and the other liquid dispersed in it. The phase inversion in three-phase flow majorly depends on the superficial velocity of individual phases, the volume fraction of liquid phases in total liquid and the internal diameter of the pipe. Pipe bends and fittings are commonly used in pipe networks for the diversion and distribution of flow. The 90° elbow bends are commonly used in such systems, where they change the flow direction from horizontal to vertical and vice versa. For the case of horizontal to upward vertical flow, the bend offers restriction to the flow compared to the straight pipe. Therefore, the process of phase inversion gets effected upstream 90° bend. In the current work, the phase inversion process during three-phase horizontal flow upstream 90° bend has been studied. The internal diameter of the pipe was 0.1524 m and the bend radius to diameter ratio (r/d) was 1. The range of superficial velocities are 0.5-5, 0.08-0.4, and 0.08-0.4 for oil-gas and water respectively. The continuous liquid phase and its effect on pressure drop have been studied at various oil to liquid volume ratios (fo). The results show the different oil-water relationships and the liquid holdup occurred due to the bend.


2011 ◽  
Vol 66-68 ◽  
pp. 1187-1192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai Qin Wang ◽  
Yong Wang ◽  
Lei Zhang

Experiments were conducted in a horizontal multiphase flow test loop (50mm inner diameter, 40m long) to study the flow patterns for oil-gas-water three-phase flow and the pressure gradient fluctuation based on flow patterns. Using new methods of definition, 12 types of flow patterns were obtained and phase distribution characteristics of each pattern were analyzed. A new flow pattern (SW║IN) was firstly found in this work. Characteristics of the pressure gradient based on 7 flow patterns were carefully discussed. It was found that the pressure gradient increased with the increase of gas superficial velocity and oil-water mixture velocity. However, characteristics of the pressure gradient became complex with the increase of input water cut. The influence of flow structure of oil-water two-phase should be fully considered.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (13) ◽  
pp. 1460
Author(s):  
Abdulaziz S. Alkabaa ◽  
Ehsan Nazemi ◽  
Osman Taylan ◽  
El Mostafa Kalmoun

To the best knowledge of the authors, in former studies in the field of measuring volume fraction of gas, oil, and water components in a three-phase flow using gamma radiation technique, the existence of a scale layer has not been considered. The formed scale layer usually has a higher density in comparison to the fluid flow inside the oil pipeline, which can lead to high photon attenuation and, consequently, reduce the measuring precision of three-phase flow meter. The purpose of this study is to present an intelligent gamma radiation-based, nondestructive technique with the ability to measure volume fraction of gas, oil, and water components in the annular regime of a three-phase flow independent of the scale layer. Since, in this problem, there are several unknown parameters, such as gas, oil, and water components with different amounts and densities and scale layers with different thicknesses, it is not possible to measure the volume fraction using a conventional gamma radiation system. In this study, a system including a 241Am-133Ba dual energy source and two transmission detectors was used. The first detector was located diametrically in front of the source. For the second detector, at first, a sensitivity investigation was conducted in order to find the optimum position. The four extracted signals in both detectors (counts under photo peaks of both detectors) were used as inputs of neural network, and volume fractions of gas and oil components were utilized as the outputs. Using the proposed intelligent technique, volume fraction of each component was predicted independent of the barium sulfate scale layer, with a maximum MAE error of 3.66%.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document