Simulation of Slug Flow in Oil and Gas PIpelines Using a New Transient Simulator

Danielson, Thomas J.; Bansal, K. M.; Djoric, Biljana; Larrey, Dominique; Johansen, Stein Tore; Leebeeck, Angela De; Kjølaas, Jørn

doi:10.4043/23353-ms

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Their presence is usually taken into account through augmentation of friction forces, which must often be adjusted to match real data. Nevertheless, the next generation of flow simulators are expected to include "regime-capturing" approaches which rely on finer grid resolution (Issa & Kempf, 2003;Carneiro et al, 2011;Danielson et al, 2012;Nieckele et al, 2011;Nieckele & Carneiro, 2017). Furthermore, recent developments in experimental investigation of this system (Birvalski et al, 2014(Birvalski et al, , 2015(Birvalski et al, , 2016Ayati et al, 2014Ayati et al, , 2015Ayati et al, , 2016Ayati et al, , 2017André & Bardet, 2017), have shown that the overall bulkflow is strongly coupled with wavy interface.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical characterization of interfacial waves in turbulent stratified gas-liquid pipe flows

Ayati

Carneiro

2018

International Journal of Multiphase Flow

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This study presents a statistical analysis of interfacial waves in a turbulent stratified air-water flow inside a 10 cm diameter pipe. Wave elevation measurements were acquired using conductance probes with high sampling rate, Sr = 500Hz. Local wave parameters (elevation, crest height, trough height, etc.) were extracted using a zero-crossing technique. The evolution of their corresponding statistical distributions and statistical moments was investigated for varying flow conditions.The main goal of this study is to offer an alternative method for distinguishing between various wavy flow patterns. The proposed approach is based on the Gaussian model, which is widely used in the characterization of ocean waves. Instead of the traditional sub-regime categorization which is based on a combination of visual observations and qualitative spectral description, this method categorizes a wave field depending on its degree of non-linearity and statistics of elevation parameters. This approach also allows parametrization of the interfacial structure. As a first step, this approach was carried out only for a selected set of flow rate combinations, in which the liquid superficial velocity was kept constant at U sl = 0.10 m/s whilst the superficial velocity was increased from 1.0 m/s to 4.0 m/s with increments of 0.25 m/s. Subsequently, statistical moments of the interface elevation were computed and compared to literature data, for varying U sl and U sg . Based on the detailed statistical description of wave data, two flow regimes are categorized: wave amplitude growth and saturation. These regimes were also identified as quasi-Gaussian and non-Gaussian, respec-Email addresses: awalaa@math.uio.no (A.A. Ayati),

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical characterization of interfacial waves in turbulent stratified gas-liquid pipe flows

Ayati

Carneiro

2018

International Journal of Multiphase Flow

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“…This approach is believed to be capable of describing the transition from stratified flow to slug flow, see for instance the work by Issa [16,63] and publications from the commercial simulator LedaFlow [9,64,65]. If the conditions are correct, small instabilities on the gas-liquid interface will become unstable and grow, either to stable waves, or to slugs.…”

Section: Slip Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of time integration methods for the compressible two-fluid model for pipe flow simulations

Sanderse

Smith

Hendrix

2017

International Journal of Multiphase Flow

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In this thesis, a 7-field Lagrangian slug capturing and slug tracking model with higher order methods and an adaptive grid is investigated for predicting the behaviour of two-phase gasliquid flow in multiphase flow pipelines. The model is capable of simulating both compressible and incompressible slugs, and pigs. The model has the possibility to simulate gas-liquid flow, including a liquid droplet field in the gas and entrained gas in the liquid.Walls consisting of multiple layers of different materials can be added to the pipes, and the energy equations for both the pipe walls and the fluids are solved. The mass, momentum and energy equations are solved in an iterative manner. Several additional tools and features have also been developed, like a steady state solver for the velocity, holdup, pressure and temperature, a unit-cell model which can be used as a standalone tool or as a sub-grid model in the dynamic model, fully period boundary conditions, curved pipe geometry, usage of tabulated PVT-files, and modelling of interfacial mass transfer. Higher order schemes are available for both spatial and temporal discretization. Different details in the two-fluid model have also been investigated, amongst other how to handle changes in the pipe cross-sectional area correctly for the border movement and level gradient. It is also shown how the upwind velocity must be modified by scaling factors to obtain the correct Bernoulli effect in the case of incompressible flow.The work resulted in four papers. In Paper 1 the model was tested against large scale experimental data, and was shown to give good predictions of the slugging periods after including a liquid droplet field and including the separator in the simulations. In Paper 3 the slug capturing capabilities of the model are tested against experimental data from a medium Furthermore I want to thank Jon Harald Kaspersen, my superior at SINTEF Petroleum, who allowed me to take a partial absence of leave in order to do this work. ..................................................................................................................... 92 2.9.7 Generic equation class ................................................................................................................ IntroductionIn the petroleum industry, multiphase flow occurs when transporting oil and gas (and possibly water) in the same pipe through long multiphase pipeline systems. The behaviour of the flow can take many forms (flow patterns), depending on several parameters like fluid velocities, pipe diameter, pipe inclination, and the fluid properties. The fluid properties are again dependent on the pressure and temperature in the system, especially the gas density and the fluid viscosity. Certain flow patterns can cause significantly reduced production, or even such operational challenges that the pipeline must be abandoned. It is therefore of crucial importance to be able to predict the behaviour of the flow when investigating how to design the pipeline. The simplest of the...

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“…Contrary to slug tracking, the slug capturing method does not need an initial assumed slug distribution and empirical flow regime models as input, and it automatically predicts slug flow regime initiation and development. Many studies describing the slug capturing method and its application and validation for slug flow in horizontal pipelines are present in the literature 9,16‐20 ; it has been demonstrated with these studies that the slug capturing approach is able to capture the slug formation, growth and decay naturally, without introducing special correlations for slug flow, from the numerical solution of the two‐fluid model for stratified flow. In fact, in horizontal pipelines and slightly inclined pipes, it is well known that the slug flow arises from stratified flow because of the growth of hydrodynamic Kelvin‐Helmholtz instabilities: in stratified flow, small perturbations appear on the liquid surface and some of these may grow into larger waves to completely fill the pipe 21 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The extension of the one‐dimensional two‐fluid slug capturing method to simulate slug flow in vertical pipes

Leporini

Bonzanini

Ferrari

et al. 2020

Numerical Methods in Fluids

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While many studies have been conducted on the application of the one‐dimensional (1D) two‐fluid model in horizontal and nearly horizontal pipes under slug flow condition, very few works have been carried out on the mechanistic simulation of the slug flow regime in vertical pipe configurations. This article presents the extension of a novel numerical scheme for slug capturing in pipes in vertical slug flows. The original numerical scheme includes an 1D transient, hyperbolic five‐equation two‐fluid model, and it has been embodied in a computer code called 5ESCARGOTS (5 Equations for Slug Capturing Analysis by a Roe solver in Gas and Oil Transient Simulation). This article demonstrates that the model is able to properly automatically capture and simulate the slug generation even in vertical flow. It shows that when appropriate closure relations are used for interfacial shear forces, the model is able to properly characterize the vertical slug flow. Numerous simulations have been carried out for different pipe configurations and flow conditions leading to slug flow. First, a qualitative discussion of the numerical results is proposed underlining that the model is able to properly simulate the evolution of the slug flow in vertical pipes. Experimental flow pattern maps have also been numerically computed and it has been demonstrated that the model correctly simulates slug conditions. Moreover, slug frequency, velocity, and average liquid holdup, computed numerically, have been compared with experimental data in order to quantitatively validate the model. It is shown that the numerical results agree fairly well with the experimental data. A sensitivity analysis on the mesh size and on the inlet boundary conditions has also been carried out.

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Simulation of Slug Flow in Oil and Gas PIpelines Using a New Transient Simulator

Cited by 12 publications

References 2 publications

Statistical characterization of interfacial waves in turbulent stratified gas-liquid pipe flows

Statistical characterization of interfacial waves in turbulent stratified gas-liquid pipe flows

Analysis of time integration methods for the compressible two-fluid model for pipe flow simulations

The extension of the one‐dimensional two‐fluid slug capturing method to simulate slug flow in vertical pipes

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