High viscous oil–water two–phase flow: experiments & numerical simulations

Abstract

An experimental study on viscous oil-water two-phase flow conducted in a 5.5 m long and 25.4 mm internal diameter (ID) pipeline is presented. Mineral oil with viscosity ranging from 3.5 Pa.s -5.0 Pa.s and water were used as test fluid for this study. Experiments were conducted for superficial velocities of oil and water ranging from 0.06 to 0.55 m/s and 0.01 m/s to 1.0 m/s respectively. Axial pressure measurements were made from which the pressure gradients were calculated. Flow pattern determination was aided by high definition video recordings. Numerical simulation of experimental flow conditions is performed using a commercially available Computational Fluid Dynamics code. Results show that at high oil superficial velocities, Core Annular Flow (CAF) is the dominant flow pattern while Oil Plug in Water Flow (OPF) and Dispersed Oil in Water (DOW) flow patterns are dominant high water superficial velocities. Pressure Gradient results showed a general trend of reduction to a minimum as water superficial velocity increases before subsequently increasing on further increasing the superficial water velocity. The CFD results performed well in predicting the flow configurations observed in the experiments.

Research on Flow Patterns of Two-Phase Fracturing Fluid in Hydraulic Fracture Considering the Fluid Leak-off

“…The effects of geometric parameters such as conical angle, pipe diameter, pitch height, and outlet split ratio on oil−water separation are revealed. Archibong-Eso et al 8 carried out a numerical simulation of a two-phase flow of high-viscosity oil and water in a pipeline using commercial software with oil viscosities between 3.5 and 5 Pa.s. The apparent flow velocities of oil and water in the experiments ranged from 0.06 to 0.55 m/s and from 0.01 to 1.0 m/s.…”

Pore-scale gas–water flow in rock: Visualization experiment and simulation

“…In recent years, researchers have conducted a great deal of research on pore-scale two-phase flow in rock, among which visualization has gradually become one of the hot spots [9,10]. In this context, there are two major research methods: physical observation experiment [11][12][13][14][15] and numerical simulation [16][17][18][19].…”

“…In the past few years, a great many researchers have made fruitful achievements in the theories and technologies of the pore-scale displacement experiment [11][12][13][14][15]. With regard to the core plug displacement experiment and the microscopic glass etching displacement experiment, researchers have not only successfully observed the two-phase flow characteristics under a microscope but also attempted to perform quantitative analyses of the parameters of two-phase flow.…”

“…In recent years, with the improvement of pore-scale flow theories and computer performance, the numerical simulation of pore-scale flow in rock has developed rapidly [15][16][17][18][19]. At present, the commonly used simulation methods include the Lattice Boltzmann Method (hereafter referred to as "the LBM") [23][24][25][26][27] and the Navier-Stokes equation based numerical simulation method [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35].…”

Finding Flow of non-Newtonian Fluids in Circular Pipe with Wall-Adjacent Gas Layer

“…В настоящее время представлен ряд математических моделей, описывающих течения вязких жидкостей, которые обладают различными реологическими характеристиками, в кольце маловязких, вязких и вязкопластических жидкостей, текущих по горизонтальным и вертикальным участкам трубопроводах [10,[12][13][14][15][16][17].…”