Despite their low efficiency compared with centrifugal pumps, jet-pumps are highly reliable robust equipment with modest maintenance which is ideal for many applications, mostly in the oil & gas industry. For example, jet-pumps could result attractive compared to other multiphase pump systems in terms of reactivating transport lines of heavy crude oil. Nevertheless, their design method and performance analysis are rarely known in the literature and keep a high experimental component like most of the pumping equipment. Starting with a pump designed by a traditional method, this paper aims to evaluate the effect of multiple geometrical and operational variables that influence the jet-pump performance combining CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation and optimization algorithms using commercials software (ANSYS CFX® and PIPEIT® tool). Automatically, the geometric parameters are modified according to the rules of the optimization routines seeking to maximize the flow capacity, respecting restrictions such as energy consumption. A case study is presented for the preliminary design of a pump to boost flow capacity in a trunk line of a heavy oil field. As preliminary design all simulations were carried out using single phase water flow. With this method, it was possible to quickly evaluate around 400 geometries of jet-pumps. The geometry of the optimum final pump is consistent with other pumps reported by other works. This pump enhances the fluid capacity of the line in 17% over the traditional design for the same parameters of power or consumed energy.
In the Oil and Gas industry, installing pipe loops is a well-known hydraulic practice to increase oil pipeline capacities. Nevertheless, pipe loops could promote an unfavorable phenomenon known as fouling. That means that in a heavy oil-water mixture gathering system with low flow velocities, an oil-water stratified flow pattern will appear. In consequence, due to high viscosity, the oil stick on the pipe, causing a reduction of the effective diameter, reducing handled fluids production, and increasing energy consumption. As jet pumps increase total handled flow, increase the fluid velocities, and promote the homogenous mixture of oil and water, this type of pump could result attractive compared to other multiphase pump systems in reactivating heavy crude oil transport lines. Jet pumps are highly reliable, robust equipment with modest maintenance, ideal for many applications, mainly in the oil and gas industry. Nevertheless, their design method and performance analysis are rarely known in the literature and keep a high experimental component similar to most pumping equipment. This paper proposes a numerical study and the optimization of a booster multiphase jet pump system installed in a heavy oil conventional loop of a gathering system. First, the optimization of a traditionally designed jet pump, combining CFD simulation and optimization algorithms using commercials software (ANSYS CFX® and PIPEIT® tool), has been carried out. This method allowed evaluating the effect of multiple geometrical and operational variables that influence the global performance of the pump to run more than 400 geometries automatically in a reduced time frame. The optimized pump offers a substantial improvement over the original concerning total flow capacity (+17%), energy, and flow distribution. Then, the effect of the three jet pump plugin configurations in a heavy oil conventional trunkline loop was analyzed. Simulations were carried out for different driving fluid pressures and compared against a traditional pipeline loop’s performance. Optimum plugin connection increases fluid production by 30%. Finally, a new eccentric jet pump geometry has been proposed to improve exit velocities and pressure fields. This eccentric jet pump with the best connection was analyzed over the same conditions as the concentric optimized one. An improvement of 2% on handled fluid was achieved consistently with the observed uniform velocity field at the exit of the pump. A better total fluid distribution between the main and the loop line is obtained, handling around half of the complete fluid each.
Despite their low efficiency compared with centrifugal pumps, jet pumps are highly reliable, robust equipment with modest maintenance, ideal for many applications, mainly in the oil & gas industry. Jet pumps are conventionally used to draw fluid from a storage tank in the petrochemical industry or as an artificial lift system to produce oil from a reservoir using energy from the primary fluid. The trunk lines in oil production systems can experience an unfavourable phenomenon due to the fluid's low velocities. In the case of transporting a heavy oil-water mixture with low flow velocities, it could promote oil and water stratification. Due to high viscosity, the stratified oil stick on the pipe,| causing a diameter reduction, resulting in a drop in fluids production and increased energy consumption. Given the virtue of jet pumps, this paper proposes using this equipment as an oil-water transfer pump as an alternative to expensive conventional multiphase pump systems. The jet pump will add fluid into the line, increase the fluid velocities, and promote the homogenous mixture of oil and water. Using ANSYS CFX, the effect of installing a jet pump in a conventional trunkline loop was analysed. Three jet pump configurations were simulated for different driving fluid pressures and compared against a traditional pipeline loop's performance. The first configuration shows a poor performance increasing only until 10% of handling fluids. Conversely, with the improved jet pump configurations rise of the fluid production by 30% has been obtained.
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