Technology Focus: Flow Assurance (November 2021)

I sincerely hope that all JPT readers and your families, peers, and employers remain safe and healthy and have work as they read this year’s Flow Assurance feature. Flow-assurance effects from slug-flow engineering, design, maintenance, and operations technical concerns still create and sustain challenging technical issues requiring safe, economical solutions for both onshore unconventional and offshore conventional production facilities. The recurring long-term mitigation of slugging and various flow-assurance phenomena—along with the prevention of wax, erosion, asphaltenes, corrosion, and salt deposition—and gas hydrate prediction and handling still demand attention and considerable project technical effort. Slug-flow assessments present opportunities for significant optimization in work flows to target governing operating scenarios. Paper OTC 30172 describes an integrated iterative approach between the flow-assurance and pipeline-engineering disciplines to streamline the work flow based on the value or cost associated with changes in input parameters that affect pipeline fatigue-assessment outcomes. Case studies on two multiphase pipelines are presented to illustrate this design approach. The results show that early identification of the key pipeline profile features and dominating spans for pipeline slugging fatigue assessments facilitated the optimization of slug-flow modeling and reduced computational time. The second paper, SPE 203448, presents decision trees that are considered as nonparametric machine-learning models. The data sets used in training and testing the predictive model are experimental and were collected from literature. Air/kerosene and air/water mixtures were used in obtaining the experimental data points. Results show that the proposed boosted decision tree regression (BDTR) model outperforms the best empirical correlations and the fuzzy-logic model used in estimating liquid holdup in gas/liquid multiphase flows. For the built model, the most important input feature in estimating liquid holdup is the superficial gas velocity. The empirical correlations developed in the past for identifying liquid holdup in multiphase flow can be applied only under the flow conditions by which they were originally developed. However, this machine-learning model does not suffer from this limitation. The third paper, OTC 31298, describes a slugging-control solution that was rejected because of the use of a pseudovariable as the principal control point. A novel control scheme, therefore, was developed and tested on simulations for both hydrodynamic slugging and severe riser-induced slugging in an Angolan field. The project implemented the novel active slugging control using a topsides control valve and topsides instrumentation. While a pseudovariable, a pseudoflow controller, was used, it was part of a cascade scheme such that the principal control variable was a real top-side pressure measurement. Upon com-missioning, slugging at the facility was found to be more severe than anticipated during design, but the novel active slug-control scheme was effective in controlling incoming slugs. The desire to understand better how to describe and improve flow assurance and multiphase flow for both offshore and onshore facilities drives new production technology research, applications, and approaches. The three papers listed for additional reading focus on developing further new analytical tools while providing safe, cost-effective, and reliable operations for flow assurance. I hope you find them as interesting as I did. In addition, I invite you to join the Flow Assurance Technical Section to augment your learning. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. OTC 30177 - Real-Time Online Hydrate Monitoring and Prevention in Offshore Fields by Syahida Husna Azman, Petronas, et al. SPE 201316 - Modeling Dynamic Loads Induced by Slug Flows Considering Gas Expansion Caused by the Pressure Gradient in a Free Span Horizontal Hanging Pipeline by Gabriel Meneses Santos, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, et al. OTC 31238 - Taylor Bubbles of Viscous Slug Flow in Inclined Pipes by Longtong Abednego Dafyak, University of Nottingham, et al.

Understanding the Barriers That Slow Firms Shifting from Products to Services

This chapter provides an introduction to “servitization” and, in particular, why manufacturing firms are moving into services and how the transition has been slowed. The first section provides an overview of how this book works. It then moves on to introduce product-service systems and the rationale for servitization from the perspective of a manufacturing firm. This is then examined from different perspectives and uses the product lifecycle as an anchor. It moves on to describe the journey into services and then a complex system that often exists within industrial product-service systems. Finally, the seven barriers are explored before providing additional reading.

Teaching Disability

Disability is a part of diversity, yet there are few resources for instructors, students, and professionals to use to learn about disability. In this practical book, Teaching Disability as Part of Diversity, 34 activities are provided. Activities can be done in class, as homework, as group activities, or independently. The activities, which comprise the majority of the book, are graduated from beginning level through more advanced levels. For each activity, there are learning objectives, a list of materials needed, an estimate of the time frame to complete the activity, possible outcomes and talking points, a grading rubric, any needed handouts, and suggested additional reading. Written by an insider to the disability community, there is a nonpathology focus on disability as part of diversity rather than a deficit. Many activities are designed to highlight barriers and psychosocial impediments that hamper people with disabilities. The first chapter helps instructors who are new to teaching disability. The second chapter discusses research on changing extrinsic and intrinsic bias toward people with disabilities and is provided as a background for the activities. No simulation activities are included, as is the explanation for why these are omitted. A final chapter includes six measures to assess knowledge and skills.