A Study of Flow-Pattern Transitions in High-Viscosity Oil-and-Gas Two-Phase Flow in Horizontal Pipes

An experimental study of the inclination angle (±2° from horizontal) effects on high viscosity oil and gas two-phase flow has been conducted, and the available multiphase flow models/correlations have been evaluated using the acquired data. The effect of pipe inclination on the slug flow characteristics of highly viscous oil-gas two-phase flow was studied based on 1,040 data points covering a wide range of experimental conditions and liquid viscosities in a 50.8-mm-ID pipe at 2° downward and upward inclinations from horizontal. The oil viscosity ranged from 155 cP to 587 cP. Superficial liquid and gas velocities varied from 0.1 m/s to 0.8 m/s and from 0.1 m/s to 5 m/s, respectively. The basic two-phase flow parameters and slug flow characteristics have been analyzed and compared with the past studies conducted for near horizontal pipes.

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Pressure Signal Analysis for the Characterization of High-Viscosity Two-Phase Flows in Horizontal Pipes

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse8121000 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 1000

Author(s):

Lizeth Torres ◽

José Noguera ◽

José Enrique Guzmán-Vázquez ◽

Jonathan Hernández ◽

Marco Sanjuan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mass Flow ◽

Two Phase Flow ◽

High Viscosity ◽

Flow Rate Ratio ◽

Phase Flow ◽

Two Phase ◽

Local Flow ◽

Horizontal Pipes ◽

Pressure Time ◽

Mass Flow Rates

We study a high-viscosity two-phase flow through an analysis of the corresponding pressure signals. In particular, we investigate the flow of a glycerin–air mixture moving through a horizontal pipeline with a U-section installed midway along the pipe. Different combinations of liquid and air mass flow rates are experimentally tested. Then, we examine the moments of the statistical distributions obtained from the resulting pressure time series, in order to highlight the significant dynamical traits of the flow. Finally, we propose a novel correlation with two dimensionless parameters: the Euler number and a mass-flow-rate ratio to predict the pressure gradient in high-viscosity two-phase flow. Distinctive variations of the pressure gradients are observed in each section of the pipeline, which suggest that the local flow dynamics must not be disregarded in favor of global considerations.

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High-Viscosity Liquid/Gas Flow Pattern Transitions in Upward Vertical Pipe Flow

SPE Journal ◽

10.2118/199901-pa ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (03) ◽

pp. 1155-1173

Author(s):

Eissa Al-Safran ◽

Mohammad Ghasemi ◽

Feras Al-Ruhaimani

Keyword(s):

Flow Pattern ◽

Two Phase Flow ◽

Bubble Diameter ◽

High Viscosity ◽

Transition Model ◽

Phase Flow ◽

Liquid Viscosity ◽

Two Phase ◽

Flow Pattern Transition ◽

Transition Models

Summary High-viscosity liquid two-phase upward vertical flow in wells and risers presents a new challenge for predicting pressure gradient and liquid holdup due to the poor understanding and prediction of flow pattern. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of liquid viscosity on two-phase flow pattern in vertical pipe flow. Further objective is to develop new/improve existing mechanistic flow-pattern transition models for high-viscosity liquid two-phase-flow vertical pipes. High-viscosity liquid flow pattern two-phase flow data were collected from open literature, against which existing flow-pattern transition models were evaluated to identify discrepancies and potential improvements. The evaluation revealed that existing flow transition models do not capture the effect of liquid viscosity, resulting in poor prediction. Therefore, two bubble flow (BL)/dispersed bubble flow (DB) pattern transitions are proposed in this study for two different ranges of liquid viscosity. The first proposed transition model modifies Brodkey's critical bubble diameter (Brodkey 1967) by including liquid viscosity, which is applicable for liquid viscosity up to 100 mPa·s. The second model, which is applicable for liquid viscosities above 100 mPa·s, proposes a new critical bubble diameter on the basis of Galileo's dimensionless number. Furthermore, the existing bubbly/intermittent flow (INT) transition model on the basis of a critical gas void fraction of 0.25 (Taitel et al. 1980) is modified to account for liquid viscosity. For the INT/annular flow (AN) transition, the Wallis transition model (Wallis 1969) was evaluated and found to be able to predict the high-viscosity liquid flow pattern data more accurately than the existing models. A validation study of the proposed transition models against the entire high-viscosity liquid experimental data set revealed a significant improvement with an average error of 22.6%. Specifically, the model over-performed existing models in BL/INT and INT/AN pattern transitions.

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Flow Pattern of Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow in a U Bend Pipeline with Upper and Lower Horizontal Pipes.

JAPANESE JOURNAL OF MULTIPHASE FLOW ◽

10.3811/jjmf.10.39 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 39-49

Author(s):

Tadashi SAKAGUCHI ◽

Yoshihiko FUJII ◽

Shigeo HOSOKAWA ◽

Hisato MINAGAWA ◽

Takashi UENO ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Flow Pattern ◽

Two Phase Flow ◽

Phase Flow ◽

Two Phase ◽

Horizontal Pipes

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Slug frequency in high viscosity oil-gas two-phase flow: Experiment and prediction

Flow Measurement and Instrumentation ◽

10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2017.01.002 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 109-123 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Yahaya D. Baba ◽

Archibong E. Archibong ◽

Aliyu M. Aliyu ◽

Abdulhaqq I. Ameen

Keyword(s):

Two Phase Flow ◽

High Viscosity ◽

Phase Flow ◽

Two Phase ◽

Flow Experiment ◽

High Viscosity Oil ◽

Oil Gas

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Estimating slug liquid holdup in high viscosity oil-gas two-phase flow

Flow Measurement and Instrumentation ◽

10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2018.10.027 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 65 ◽

pp. 22-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

A. Archibong-Eso ◽

N.E. Okeke ◽

Y. Baba ◽

A.M. Aliyu ◽

L. Lao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Two Phase Flow ◽

High Viscosity ◽

Phase Flow ◽

Liquid Holdup ◽

Two Phase ◽

High Viscosity Oil ◽

Oil Gas

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Simulation and Experiment Study of Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow Leakage in Horizontal Pipelines

ASME 2019 Asia Pacific Pipeline Conference ◽

10.1115/appc2019-7618 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Ji Jian

Keyword(s):

Flow Field ◽

Flow Pattern ◽

Two Phase Flow ◽

Sound Field ◽

Phase Flow ◽

Two Phase ◽

Horizontal Pipes ◽

Propagation Law ◽

Change Characteristics ◽

Simulation And Experiment

Abstract The influence of flow pattern, leakage location and leakage aperture changes on the flow field and the sound field in horizontal pipelines are studied in this paper. The CFD software is used to simulate the gas-liquid two-phase flow in horizontal pipes. Findings from literature research, it is necessary to study the change of flow field with different parameters in the simulation process. To study the flow field, first, a mathematical model of gas-liquid two-phase flow pipeline leakage established. The flow field parameters of gas-liquid two-phase flow is calculated under different gas&liquid inlet. Then, the fluent is used to solve the flow field, and the appropriate acoustic model is selected to realize the conversion of flow pattern to sound field. Finally, the simulation results are analyzed and verified through experiments. In this paper, we have simulated the change characteristics of the flow field and sound field of different flow pattern, leakage position, aperture size and the sound field, which is helpful to further understand and grasp the location and propagation law of the leakage source.

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