Investigation on the operation and gas-liquid two phase flow characteristics of vane type deep-sea pump

Abstract

The development of oil and gas resources towards the deep sea is an inevitable trend in international energy development. Due to its advantages of high production and transportation efficiency, good flow safety and low investment cost, oil and gas mixed transportation technology has become the preferred technology for deep-sea oil and gas production and transportation system. The core device of the oil-gas mixed transportation system is the gas-liquid two-phase flow pump. Under the gas-liquid two-phase condition, the pressure surging will occur with the increase of the inlet gas volume fraction (IGVF) in the pump. At this time, the pressurization capacity of the pump decreases significantly, accompanied by violent vibration, resulting in extremely unstable operation. To solve this problem, the numerical simulation and experiment of the two-phase operation characteristics of a centrifugal pump and a semi-open mixed-flow pump were carried out in this study. The influence of operating parameters on its pressurization capacity was clarified, and the internal gas-liquid distribution was visually tested, revealing the distribution and its spatiotemporal evolution of gas-phase in the impeller. Finally, the unsteady characteristics of pressure surging were analyzed in detail.