Intermittent three-phase flow of oil, water and gas in horizontal pipes

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:237914

Naedler, M; Mewes, D ^[1]

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1. Univ. Hannover (Germany). Inst. fuer Verfahrenstechnik

Crude oil and natural gas from subsea reservoirs are exploited by conveying the mixture of oil, water and gas in underwater pipelines from wells to process facilities. The most common flow regime in these pipelines is the slug flow regime. If sufficient mixing takes place one liquid phase will be dispersed in the other phase, so that dispersions or emulsions are formed. Due to changing fluid properties and velocities of the phases the distribution of the phases changes resulting in phase inversion while the mixture is flowing downstream. In order to design multiphase transportation pipelines the knowledge of the effect of phase inversion on the characteristics of the intermittent three-phase flow of oil, water and gas is required. This paper presents experimental results for the effect of water cut and the effect of the entrance length on the characteristics of the multiphase flow in a horizontal pipeline of 48 m length and 59 mm inner diameter. The results obtained indicate that a water dominated and an oil dominated flow system can be distinguished in the pipeline flow of two immiscible liquids as well as in the aerated slug flow regime of oil, water and gas. The characteristics of the three-phase flow are of the magnitude of the characteristics of the two-phase flow of gas and the liquid phase dominating within the flow system. Equations are presented for predicting the dominating liquid phase.

• OSTI ID: 237914
• Report Number(s): CONF-950604--; ISBN 1-880653-18-4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
03 NATURAL GAS
FLOW MODELS
MULTIPHASE FLOW
NATURAL GAS
PETROLEUM
PHASE STUDIES
PIPELINES
TRANSPORT