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A Study of Flow Patterns and Surface Wetting in Gas-Oil-Water Flow

Kee, Kok Eng
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1401985339

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Mechanical Engineering (Engineering and Technology).
Three-phase gas-oil-water flow is a common occurrence in the oil and gas industry. The presence of water in the pipeline can lead to internal corrosion if the free water, dissolved with corrosive species, comes into contact with the wall surface, a scenario known as 'water wetting.' With the introduction of a gas phase, the flow dynamics become much more complicated due to the varying degree of spatial distribution of the immiscible fluids. The present work addresses how the addition of a gas phase to the oil-water flow can change the flow dynamics and surface wetting behavior. The work mainly focuses on the hydrodynamic aspects of the flow and how they may affect the surface wetting in pipe flow. Experimental work was first carried out on oil-water systems to investigate flow patterns and surface wetting behavior in order to establish a baseline for the subsequent measurement of three-phase flow into which CO2 gas was introduced. The experiments were conducted in a large scale 0.1 m ID flow loop. Test fluids used were light model oil LVT200 and 1 wt.% aqueous NaCl. Flow pattern images were visually captured with a high speed video camera and surface wetting behavior was measured using conductivity pins. In oil-water flow, flow patterns can be divided into two broad categories dependent on whether the two immiscible liquids are dispersed or separated. Under those flow conditions, the surface wetting behavior can be categorized into four types of wetting regimes based on the intermittency of the wetting behavior as measured by the conductivity pins. In three-phase gas-oil-water flow, the effects of gas added to the oil-water system were investigated. Flow patterns and surface wetting were quantified at various liquid velocities, gas velocities and water cuts. At low water cut, the wetting results showed that adding the gas phase can help to keep water off the pipe wall, leading to oil wetting. At high water cut, water wetting prevailed and adding gas did not lessen the intensity of wetting. Tomographic techniques were employed to study the cross sectional distribution of the fluid phases in multiphase flow pipes. Knowing the strength and limitations, the techniques can be used for meaningful interpretation of flow patterns. They were not suited, however, for detecting water distribution at low water cut. A mechanistic three-phase water wetting model has been proposed and implemented. The model was built from the framework of the gas-liquid flow model and the oil-water wetting model. The model has been validated with the laboratory data for three different types of flow patterns.
Srdjan Nešic, PhD (Advisor)
329 p.
Chemical Engineering; Fluid Dynamics; Mechanical Engineering; Petroleum Engineering
flow patterns; surface wetting; water wetting; gas-oil-water flow; oil-water flow, three-phase flow; flow loop; conductivity pins; tomography; high speed video camera, predictive model

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kee, K. E. (2014). A Study of Flow Patterns and Surface Wetting in Gas-Oil-Water Flow [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1401985339

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kee, Kok Eng. A Study of Flow Patterns and Surface Wetting in Gas-Oil-Water Flow. 2014. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1401985339.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kee, Kok Eng. "A Study of Flow Patterns and Surface Wetting in Gas-Oil-Water Flow." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1401985339

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1401985339
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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.