Use of Horizontal Drift-Flux Models For Simulating Wellbore Flow in SAGD Operations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Heidari ◽  
Christopher Istchenko ◽  
William Bailey ◽  
Terry Stone
Keyword(s):  
Flux Flow ◽  
Pressure Drops ◽  
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage ◽  
Drift Flux ◽  
Pressure Profiles ◽  
Well Model ◽  
Inclination Angles ◽  
Operation Pressure ◽  
Reservoir Simulator ◽  
High Degree

Abstract The paper examines new horizontal drift-flux correlations for their ability to accurately model phase flow rates and pressure drops in horizontal and undulating wells that are part of a Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) field operation. Pressure profiles within each well correlate to the overall performance of the pair. SAGD is a low-pressure process that is sensitive to reservoir heterogeneity and other factors, hence accurate simulation of in situ wellbore pressures is critical for both mitigating uneven steam chamber evolution and optimizing wellbore design and operation. Recently published horizontal drift-flux correlations have been implemented in a commercial thermal reservoir simulator with a multi-segment well model. Valid for horizontally drilled wells with undulations, they complement previously reported drift-flux models developed for vertical and inclined wells down to approximately 5 degrees from horizontal. The formulation of these correlations has a high degree of nonlinearity. These models are tested in simulations of SAGD field operations. First, an overview of drift-flux models is discussed. This differentiates those based on vertical flow with gravity segregation to those that model horizontal flow with stratified and slug flow regimes. Second, the most recent and significant drift-flux correlation by Bailey et al. (2018, and hereafter referred to as Bailey-Tang-Stone) was robustly designed to be used in the well model of a reservoir simulator, can handle all inclination angles and was optimized to experimental data from the largest available databases to date. This and earlier drift-flux models are reviewed as to their strengths and weaknesses. Third, governing equations and implementation details are given of the Bailey-Tang-Stone model. Fourth, six case studies are presented that illustrate homogeneous and drift-flux flow model differences for various well scenarios.

scholarly journals A Practical Compressor Casing Treatment

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Khalid
Keyword(s):  
Suction Side ◽  
Velocity Variation ◽  
Cell Orientation ◽  
Stall Margin ◽  
Exit Velocity ◽  
Casing Treatment ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
Pressure Profiles ◽  
Inclination Angles ◽  
Side Flow

A three stage compressor test incorporating casing inserts comprised of compound angled honeycomb cells demonstrated up to 10% higher stall margin than circumferential grooves casing treatment. This is attributed to effective tip flow energization resulting from the unsteady flow induced in and out of the cells as the blade tip sweeps by the cell openings. The rationale for selecting the cell inclination angles both relative to the normal and the tangential directions is discussed. The design intent of the cell orientation is to induce a high cell exit velocity as well as to impart a degree of flow alignment to the injected jets. A first order calculation of cell exit velocity variation based on the cell pressure/volume dynamics is indicative of unsteady blowing which is theorized to effectively mix the tip suction side flow and to enhance the tip flow streamwise momentum. This theory is partially substantiated by the presented compressor test results showing improved radial total pressure profiles, stage characteristics, and stall margin. Since a few unhealthy stages of a multi-stage compressor could make it stall prone, casing treatment of those weak stages could dramatically increase stall margin with negligible impact on overall adiabatic efficiency. In addition to the aerodynamic effectiveness, the mechanical suitability of this casing treatment to multistage compressors, based on its demonstrated abradability and packageability, is discussed.

Effect of Viscosity on the Pressure Gradient in 4-Inch Pipe

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Mudasar Imam ◽  
Mehaboob Basha ◽  
S. M. Shaahid ◽  
Aftab Ahmad ◽  
Luai M. Al-Hadhrami
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Liquid Velocity ◽  
Pressure Drops ◽  
Increase With Increase ◽  
Empirical Relations ◽  
Inclination Angles ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Reference Pressure ◽  
Velocity Pressure ◽  
Measured Pressure

The pressure drop of liquids of different viscosities in multiphase flow is still a subject of research. This paper presents pressure drop measurements of water and oil single phase flow in horizontal and inclined 4 inch diameter stainless steel pipe at different flow rates. Potable water and Exxol D80 oil were used in the study. Experiments were carried out for different inclination angles including; 0°, 15°, 30° (upward and downward flows). Inlet liquid velocities were varied from 0.4 to 1.2 m/s and reference pressure was set at 1 bar. Water and Oil viscosities are 0.798 Pa.s and 1.56 Pa.s at 30°C, respectively. Pressure drop has been found to increase with increase in liquid velocity. Pressure drop has been observed to increase asymptotically with pipe inclination. Upward flows are associated with high pressure drop as compared to downward flows. The pressure drop of water is greater than that of oil for all inclinations. This difference can be attributed to the difference in fluid viscosities and densities. Measured pressure drops were compared with existing empirical relations and good agreement was noticed.

Interferometric Deformation Measurement of Elastohydrodynamically Loaded Surfaces

1978 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jakobsen ◽  
P. C. Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Contact Area ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Deformation Measurement ◽  
Optical Interference ◽  
Actual Operating ◽  
Pressure Profiles ◽  
Line Contacts ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Sufficient Precision

A method of determining deformations of elastohydrodynamic point and line contacts under actual operating conditions is presented. An optical interference of two beams is applied. The method appears to give a high degree of accuracy and thereby offers the possibility of determining pressure profiles over the contact area with sufficient precision for viscometric purposes.

Emissions Performance of the Macrolaminate Premixer Tested Under Simulated Engine Conditions

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adel Mansour ◽  
Michael A. Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Flame Temperature ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Nox Formation ◽  
Pressure Drops ◽  
Lean Blowout ◽  
Stirred Reactor ◽  
Pressure Swirl ◽  
High Degree

Single injector, high pressure, rig evaluation of the prototype Parker macrolaminate dual fuel premixer (previously tested at NETL, see Mansour et al., 2001) [1] with pressure swirl macrolaminate atomizers was conducted under simulated engine operating conditions running on No. 2 diesel fuel (DF2). Emissions, oscillations and lean blowout (LBO) performance on liquid fuel at high, part and no load operating points (pressures of 160, 100, 120 psig, and inlet temperatures of 690, 570, 590°F, respectively) and various pressure drops (ΔP/P) and air fuel ratio conditions were investigated. The results indicate that the Parker premixer design has the potential to reduce the DF2 NOX emission to below 15 ppmv, 15% O2. At simulated high load conditions with a nominal flame temperature (TPZ) of 2700°F, the NOX and CO emissions are approximately 10 and 2.5 ppmv at 15% O2, respectively. These results compare extremely favorable to existing commercially available premixer technologies tested under similar rig operating conditions. More importantly, the NOX yield for the Parker Macrolaminate premixer appears to be independent of operating conditions (from high to no load and various pressure drop conditions). Variations in combustor pressure, inlet temperature (T2) and residence time (τ) or pressure drop (ΔP/P) does not seem to have an effect on the formation of NOX. According to Leonard and Stegmaier (1993) [2], insensitivity of NOX formation to operating conditions is a good indication of high degree of premixing. Additionally, the premixer NOX data is only 1 to 2 ppmv higher than the jet stirred reactor (JSR) results (ran at T2 = 661°F, PCD = 14.7 psi and TPZ = 2762°F with similar DF2) of Lee et al., 2001 [3], further confirming the quality of premixing achieved. Combustion driven oscillations was not investigated by tuning the rig so that oscillations would not be a factor.

Effect of Inclination on the Air-Water Flow in 4-Inch Pipe

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehaboob Basha ◽  
S. M. Shaahid ◽  
M. Mudasar Imam ◽  
Aftab Ahmad ◽  
Luai M. Al-Hadhrami
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Two Phase Flow ◽  
Petroleum Industry ◽  
Phase Flow ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Pressure Drops ◽  
Increase With Increase ◽  
Inclination Angles ◽  
Reference Pressure ◽  
Velocity Pressure

Air-water two-phase flow in a pipeline often occurs in petroleum industry. It is important to study behavior of such flows in order to characterize two-phase flow in upstream production pipelines. This paper presents pressure drop measurements of air-water two-phase flow in a horizontal and inclined 4 inch diameter stainless steel pipe at different flow conditions. Experiments were carried out for different inclination angles including; 0°, 15°, 30° (upward and downward flows) and for different water-to-air volume fractions. Inlet superficial water velocities were varied from 0.3 to 3 m/s and reference pressure was set at 1 and 2 bars. For a given superficial air velocity, pressure drop has been found to increase with increase in superficial water velocity. Pressure drop was also affected by the inclination of pipe. Upward flows were associated with high pressure drops as compared to downward flows. Measured pressure drops were compared with existing empirical relations and good agreement was found.

High heat flux flow boiling in silicon multi-microchannels – Part III: Saturated critical heat flux of R236fa and two-phase pressure drops

2008 ◽  
Vol 51 (21-22) ◽  
pp. 5426-5442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Agostini ◽  
Rémi Revellin ◽  
John Richard Thome ◽  
Matteo Fabbri ◽  
Bruno Michel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Critical Heat Flux ◽  
Flow Boiling ◽  
High Heat ◽  
High Heat Flux ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Flux Flow ◽  
Pressure Drops ◽  
Phase Pressure

scholarly journals DESIGN OF THE INJECTION STRATEGY IN EXPANDING-SOLVENT STEAM-ASSISTED GRAVITY DRAINAGE

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian D. Gates
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Gravity Drainage ◽  
Steam Generation ◽  
Central Idea ◽  
Gas Combustion ◽  
Injection Strategy ◽  
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage ◽  
Natural Gas Combustion ◽  
Reservoir Simulator ◽  
Better Than

Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage is effective at extracting oil from heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs. However, steam generation by natural gas combustion can render the process uneconomic. It has been suggested that addition of injected solvents improves oil rates or at least maintains similar oil rates with reduced steam. This is the basis of the Expanding Solvent - Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage process. The central idea is that steam plus solvent is better than steam alone to recover heavy oil and bitumen. In this research, the steam and solvent injection strategy is designed by optimizing the cumulative steam-oil ratio by using simulated annealing and a commercial reservoir simulator.

Investigation of Holdup and Pressure Drop Behavior for Oil-Water Flow in Vertical and Deviated Wells

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Flores ◽  
C. Sarica ◽  
T. X. Chen ◽  
J. P. Brill
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Water Flow ◽  
Flow Patterns ◽  
Production Optimization ◽  
Pressure Gradients ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Drift Flux Model ◽  
Drift Flux ◽  
Inclination Angles ◽  
Oil Water

Two-phase flow of oil and water is commonly observed in wellbores, and its behavior under a wide range of flow conditions and inclination angles constitutes a relevant unresolved issue for the petroleum industry. Among the most significant applications of oil-water flow in wellbores are production optimization, production string selection, production logging interpretation, down-hole metering, and artificial lift design and modeling. In this study, oil-water flow in vertical and inclined pipes has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. The data are acquired in a transparent test section (0.0508 m i.d., 15.3 m long) using a mineral oil and water (ρo/ρw = 0.85, μo/μw = 20.0 & σo−w = 33.5 dyne/cm at 32.22°C). The tests covered inclination angles of 90, 75, 60, and 45 deg from horizontal. The holdup and pressure drop behaviors are strongly affected by oil-water flow patterns and inclination angle. Oil-water flows have been grouped into two major categories based on the status of the continuous phase, including water-dominated and oil-dominated flow patterns. Water-dominated flow patterns generally showed significant slippage, but relatively low frictional pressure gradients. In contrast, oil-dominated flow patterns showed negligible slippage, but significantly large frictional pressure gradients. A new mechanistic model is proposed to predict the water holdup in vertical wellbores based on a drift-flux approach. The drift flux model was found to be adequate to calculate the holdup for high slippage flow patterns. New closure relationships for the two-phase friction factor for oil-dominated and water-dominated flow patterns are also proposed.

Development and Application of a Fully Implicitly Coupled Wellbore/Reservoir Simulator To Characterize the Transient Liquid Loading in Horizontal Gas Wells

SPE Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (05) ◽  
pp. 1615-1629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hewei Tang ◽  
A.. Rashid Hasan ◽  
John Killough
Keyword(s):  
Flow Regime ◽  
Reservoir Model ◽  
Balance Equations ◽  
Gas Wells ◽  
Liquid Loading ◽  
Drift Flux Model ◽  
Drift Flux ◽  
Wellbore Pressure ◽  
Flux Model ◽  
Reservoir Simulator

Summary Liquid loading is a challenging issue in most mature gas fields. The dynamic interaction between wellbore and reservoir when liquid loading happens cannot be comprehensively simulated by a single wellbore simulator or a single reservoir simulator. In this paper, we develop a fully implicitly coupled wellbore/reservoir model to characterize the flow transients in liquid-loaded horizontal gas wells. We fully couple a wellbore model with an in-house reservoir simulator based on the control-volume finite-difference method. Wellbore transient material-balance equations and mixture momentum-balance equations are solved simultaneously with the reservoir equations to obtain pressure, mixture velocity, and phase holdup in each wellbore segment. Also, we propose a modified drift-flux model that is capable of predicting the flow-regime transition for different pipe inclinations from vertical to horizontal. The modified drift-flux model is integrated in the coupled wellbore/reservoir simulator to characterize the two-phase flow in horizontal wellbores. We validate the coupled wellbore/reservoir model with a commercial multisegment wellbore (MSW)/reservoir simulator. The revised drift-flux formulation not only matches a commercial simulator in production forecast and wellbore pressure, but also predicts the subsequent unstable liquid production caused by flow-regime transitions. For a synthetic field-scale case, the new model predicts gas production that lasts 23 days longer than the prediction of a commercial simulator. This paper extends the capability of a fully implicitly coupled wellbore/reservoir simulator to simulate the transient liquid-loading phenomenon. The model can serve as a promising tool for gasfield development.

Prediction of Pressure Drops in Liquid-Liquid Two-Phase Flow Across Circular Channels

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zurwa Khan ◽  
Reza Tafreshi ◽  
MD Ferdous Wahid ◽  
Albertus Retnanto
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Flow ◽  
Two Phase Flow ◽  
Mechanistic Model ◽  
Separated Flow ◽  
Flow Patterns ◽  
Phase Flow ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Pressure Drops ◽  
Inclination Angles ◽  
Layered Flow

Abstract Mechanistic models are necessary for understanding and predicting the behavior of liquid-liquid flow for multiple pipe dimensions, mixture properties, and flow patterns. In this paper, a mechanistic model is proposed to calculate pressure drop across circular channels for liquid-liquid two-phase flow. The developed model considers several key aspects of liquid-liquid flow, such as mixed and wavy liquid-liquid interfaces and dispersion within each liquid’s layers. Unique identifiers, such as height, turbulence, and dispersion, are calculated for each phase, using an augmented separated flow model and nonlinear optimization. Comparison of the proposed model with experimental data, comprising of multiple inclination angles and flow patterns, shows accurate predictions for a variety of liquid-liquid flow patterns, including double- and triple-layered flow.

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