The Slug Flow Problem in Oil Industry and Pi Level Control

Sausen, Airam; Sausen, Paulo Sérgio; Campos, Maurício de

doi:10.5772/50711

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The main focus of this work is the emergence of intermittent flow patterns (also known as slug or plug flow [13]) which only occurs in gas-liquid or liquidliquid flows. In particular, in pipeline networks, these patterns are highly undesirable [52]. Those slug patterns, that can measure up to tens of meters, are known to damage facilities (separators flooding, compressors starving, water hammer phenomenon) and to reduce flow efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulations of intermittent two-phase flows in pipes using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

et al. 2018

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Slug flows are a typical intermittent two-phase flow pattern that can occur in submarine pipelines connecting the wells to the production facility and that is known to cause undesired consequences. In this context, computational fluid dynamics appears to be the tool of choice to understand their formation. However, few direct numerical simulations of slug flows are available in the literature, especially using meshless methods which are known to be capable of handling complex problems involving interfaces.In this work, a 2D study of the instability processes leading to the formation of intermittent flows in pipes is conducted using an existing multiphase smoothed particle hydrodynamics formulation associated with inlet and outlet boundary conditions. This paper aims to demonstrate the applicability of smoothed particle hydrodynamics to a given set of close-to-industry cases.First, we check the ability of our implementation to reproduce flow regimes predicted by Taitel and Duckler's flow map. Then, we focus on the transition processes from one flow pattern to the other. Finally, we present the results obtained for more realistic cases with high density and viscosity ratios.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulations of intermittent two-phase flows in pipes using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

et al. 2018

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“…A Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID) of the de-oiling system that is considered in this study can be seen in Figure 1. In previous work, it was shown that such a system is sensitive towards fluctuating inlet flow rate [15,[18][19][20], which is a re-occurring phenomenon in such installations and in most occasions it is caused by slugging flow regime in the upstream pipeline system [21][22][23]. An investigation of the offshore data, as shown in Figure 2, shows a typical performance of a conventional de-oiling controller, consisting of two individual PID controllers, a level and a PDR controller, as shown in Figure 1, during a fluctuating inlet flow rate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of H∞ Robust Control on a Scaled Offshore Oil and Gas De-Oiling Facility

Durdevic¹,

Yang²

2018

Energies

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Abstract:The offshore de-oiling process is a vital part of current oil recovery, as it separates the profitable oil from water and ensures that the discharged water contains as little of the polluting oil as possible. With the passage of time, there is an increase in the water fraction in reservoirs that adds to the strain put on these facilities, and thus larger quantities of oil are being discharged into the oceans, which has in many studies been linked to negative effects on marine life. In many cases, such installations are controlled using non-cooperative single objective controllers which are inefficient in handling fluctuating inflows or complicated operating conditions. This work introduces a model-based robust H ∞ control solution that handles the entire de-oiling system and improves the system's robustness towards fluctuating flow thereby improving the oil recovery and reducing the environmental impacts of the discharge. The robust H ∞ control solution was compared to a benchmark Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control solution and evaluated through simulation and experiments performed on a pilot plant. This study found that the robust H ∞ control solution greatly improved the performance of the de-oiling process.

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