Two-phase horizontal gravity separators are widely used in the petroleum industry. Design of these separators are based on empirical correlations and the design approach is described by the international standard API12J (American Petroleum Institute). Other literature provides different design approaches for defining the length and diameter of separator. However, there is no clear described method to determine the position of diverter neither in literature nor in API standards.In this study, the main sizes of a separator were determined for a specific oilgas mixture using the empirical correlations from API and literature. To analyze the effects of the position of the diverter and perforated plates on the separation efficiency; two-phase flow simulations were conducted using CFD software ANSYS CFX. The CFD simulations were carried out for two different diverter plate distances from the inlet. The diverter plate was located 100 mm and 170 mm from the inlet. Additionally, simulation was also performed with perforated baffle plates when the diverter plate is positioned 170 mm from the inlet. To estimate the effects of these different configurations on separation efficiency, the CFD simulations results were compared.It has been observed that perforated plates and position of the inlet diverter affect the separation efficiency. When the inlet diverter is located 100 mm from the inlet, the separation efficiency of 98.5% is obtained. When the inlet diverter is located at a distance 170 mm from the inlet, the separation efficiency increases Advances in Fluid Mechanics X 133 to 99.32%. When perforated plates are assembled onto the separator, the separation efficiency increases further. A petroleum company, which produces about 25,550,000 barrels of oil per year, can save 252,945 barrels of oil every year if the separation efficiency increases by 0.99%. This provides $27,823,950 extra profit per year.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solutions have played an important role in the design and evaluation of complex problems where analytical solutions are not available. Among many practical applications, hypersonic flows have been an area of intense research because of the important challenges found in this flow regime. The numerical study conducted herein, focuses on solving the hypersonic flat plate problem under realistic conditions, at high Reynolds and Mach numbers. The numerical scheme implemented in this study solves the two-dimensional unsteady Navier Stokes Equations, using a novel technique called Integro-Differential Scheme (IDS) that combines the traditional finite volume and the finite difference methods. Moreover, this scheme is built on the premise of reducing the numerical errors through the implementation of a consistent averaging procedure. Unlike other numerical approaches, where free molecular effects are considered, this study enforces no-slip and fixed temperature as boundary conditions. The IDS approach accurately predicted the physics in the vicinity of the hypersonic leading edge at such realistic conditions. Even though there are slight discrepancies between the numerical solution and the available experimental data, the IDS solution revealed some interesting details about the flow field that was previously undiscovered.
This paper presents the numerical simulation of an industrial multi-step deep drawing process. A large strain finite element formulation including a hyperelastic elastoplastic constitutive model and a contact-friction law is used to this end where the steel sheet material parameters considered in the analysis are previously derived through a characterization procedure of its mechanical response. The numerical predictions of the final shape and thickness distribution of the blank are compared and discussed with available experimental values measured at the end of three successive drawing steps. In addition, a plastic work-based damage index is used to assess failure occurrence during the process. The damage values computed at the end of the drawing process are found to be lower than that corresponding to rupture in the tensile test, considered here as the threshold of failure, confirming, as observed experimentally, that neither fracture nor necking is developed in the blank during the whole drawing process. Finally, the possibility to carry out a reduced two-step drawing process, obtained by merging the second and third steps of the three-step process, is precluded since the damage criterion predicts in this case excessively large values that indicate that failure may occur in specific zones of the sheet.
Many industrial devices found in the oil and gas industries are designed using empirical correlations, such as gas-liquid vertical separators. However, the physics involved in these devices are quite complex including multiphase flows and internal devices that are not considered in the empirical approach. Therefore, important discrepancies are found in industrial fields. This research conducts a numerical study using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to assess the different empirical models used in such designs. A short review of the different models is presented and compared and computational experiments are used to evaluate the parameters of importance of these devices. In addition, statistical models are implemented to evaluate the influence of operational parameters, properties of fluids and geometric variables to the efficiency of the separator and pressure drop. To this end, a surrogate model is developed using Kriging interpolation that allows evaluation of the different combination of parameters without running each design using CFD. Preliminary results demonstrate that the standard accepted as general reference ANSI/ANSI/API-12J provides the lowest efficiency and the higher pressure drop, albeit small, compared to the other methods.
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