Study on the Performance of a Compact Compound Oil/Gas/Water Separator for Offshore Oil Industry

High-efficiency separation of the oil/gas/water mixtures is a significant issue in offshore oil industry. To reduce the total cost by means of reduction in weight and space compared with conventional separators, a novel compact compound oil/gas/water separator is developed. The research works on oil-gas-water separation by compound separating techniques is described in this paper. The innovative separator is a gravity settling tank with helical pipes within and T-shaped pipes outside. Both experiments and numerical simulations are presented to study the separating performance and efficiency of the helical pipes, which are the main part of the separator.

Experimental Investigation On The Slip Between Oil And Water In Horizontal Pipes

This work is devoted to study of the slip phenomenon between phases in water-oil two-phase flow in horizontal pipes. The emphasis is placed on the effects of input fluids flow rates, pipe diameter and viscosities of oil phase on the slip. Experiments were conducted to measure the holdup in two horizontal pipes with 0.05 m diameter and 0.025 m diameter, respectively, using two different viscosities of white oil and tap water as liquid phases. Results showed that the ratios of in situ oil to water velocity at the pipe of small diameter are higher than those at the pipe of big diameter when having same input flow rates. At low input water flow rate, there is a large deviation on the holdup between two flow systems with different oil viscosities and the deviation becomes gradually smaller with further increased input water flow rate. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigations of phase inversion and frictional pressure gradients in upward and downward oil–water flow in vertical pipes

The present study has attempted to investigate phase inversion and frictional pressure gradients during simultaneous vertical flow of oil and water two-phase through upward and downward pipes. The liquids selected were white oil (44 mPa s viscosity and 860 kg/m3 density) and water. The measurements were made for phase velocities varying from 0 to 1.24 m/s for water and from 0 to 1.87 m/s for oil, respectively. Experiments were carried either by keeping the mixture velocity constant and increasing the dispersed phase fraction or by keeping the continuous phase superficial velocity constant and increasing the dispersed phase superficial velocity. From the experimental results, it is shown that the frictional pressure gradient reaches to its lower value at the phase inversion point in this work. The points of phase inversion are always close to an input oil fraction of 0.8 for upward flow and of 0.75 for downward flow, respectively. A few models published in the literature are used to predict the phase inversion point and to compare the results with available experimental data. Suitable methods are suggested to predict the critical oil holdup at phase inversion based on the different viscosity ratio ranges. Furthermore, the frictional pressure gradient is analyzed with several suitable theoretical models according to the existing flow patterns. The analysis reveals that both the theoretical curves and the experimental data exhibit the same trend and the overall agreement of predicted values with experimental data is good, especially for a high oil fraction.

Study of drag reduction by gas injection for power-law fluid flow in horizontal stratified and slug flow regimes

In this work, the drag reduction by gas injection for power-law fluid flow in stratified and slug flow regimes has been studied. Experimentswere conducted to measure the pressure gradient within air/CMC solutions in a horizontal Plexiglas pipe that had a diameter of 50mm and a length of 30 m. The drag reduction ratio in stratified flow regime was predicted using the two-fluid model. The results showed that the drag reduction should occur over the large range of the liquid holdup when the flow behaviour index remained at the low value. Furthermore, for turbulent gas-laminar liquid stratified flow, the drag reduction by gas injection for Newtonian fluid was more effective than that for shear-shinning fluid, when the dimensionless liquid height remained in the area of high value. The pressure gradient model for a gas/Newtonian liquid slug flow was extended to liquids possessing the Ostwald–de Waele power law model. The proposed model was validated against 340 experimental data point over a wide range of operating conditions, fluid characteristics and pipe diameters. The dimensionless pressure drop predicted was well inside the 20% deviation region for most of the experimental data. These results substantiated the general validity of the model presented for gas/non-Newtonian two-phase slug flows.

Studies on two-phase co-current air/non-Newtonian shear-thinning fluid flows in inclined smooth pipes

In this work. co-current flow characteristics of air/non-Newtonian liquid systems in inclined smooth pipes are studied experimentally and theoretically using transparent tubes of 20, 40 and 60 turn in diameter. Each tube includes two 10 m lone pipe branches connected by a U-bend that is capable of being inclined to any angle, from a completely horizontal to a fully vertical position. The flow rate of each phase is varied over a wide range. The studied flow phenomena are bubbly, plug flow, slug flow, churn flow and annular flow. These are observed and recorded by a high flow. stratified flow. -speed camera over a wide range of operating conditions. The effects of the liquid phase properties, the inclination angle and the pipe diameter on two-phase flow characteristics are systematically studied. The Heywood-Charles model for horizontal flow was modified to accommodate stratified flow in inclined pipes, taking into account the average void fraction and pressure drop of the mixture flow of a gas/non-Newtonian liquid. The pressure drop gradient model of Taitel and Barnea for a gas/Newtonian liquid slug flow was extended to include liquids possessing shear-thinning flow behaviour in inclined pipes. The comparison of the predicted values with the experimental data shows that the models presented here provide a reasonable estimate of the average void fraction and the corresponding pressure drop for the mixture flow of a gas/ non-Newtonian liquid. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Simple Model For Predicting The Void Fraction Of Gas/Non-Newtonian Fluid Intermittent Flows In Upward Inclined Pipes

In this work, a simple correlation, which incorporates the mixture velocity, drift velocity, and the correction factor of Farooqi and Richardson, was proposed to predict the void fraction of gas/non-Newtonian intermittent flow in upward inclined pipes. The correlation was based on 352 data points covering a wide range of flow rates for different CMC solutions at diverse angles. A good agreement was obtained between the predicted and experimental results. These results substantiated the general validity of the model presented for gas/non-Newtonian two-phase intermittent flows.

Investigation on average void fraction for air/non-Newtonian power-law fluids two-phase flow in downward inclined pipes

The present work has been carried out to investigate on the average void fraction of gas/non-Newtonian fluids flow in downward inclined pipes. The influences of pipe inclination angle on the average void fraction were studied experimentally. A simple correlation, which incorporated the method of Vlachos et al. for gas/Newtonain fluid horizontal flow, the correction factor of Farooqi and Richardson and the pipe inclination angle, was proposed to predict the average void fraction of gas/non-Newtonian power-law stratified flow in downward inclined pipes. The correlation was based on 470 data points covering a wide range of flow rates for different systems at diverse angles. A good agreement was obtained between theory and data and the fitting results could describe the majority of the experimental data within ±20%.

Chaotic behavior of pulsating heat pipes

Chaotic behavior of closed loop pulsating heat pipes (PHPs) was studied. The PHPs were fabricated by capillary tubes with outer and inner diameters of 2.0 and 1.20 mm. FC-72 and deionized water were used as the working fluids. Experiments cover the following data ranges: number of turns of 4, 6, and 9, inclination angles from 5 degrees (near horizontal) to 90, (vertical), charge ratios from 50% to 80%, heating powers from 7.5 to 60.0 W. The nonlinear analysis is based on the recorded time series of temperatures on the evaporation, adiabatic, and condensation sections. The present study confirms that PHPs are deterministic chaotic systems. Autocorrelation functions (ACF) are decreased versus time, indicating prediction ability of the system is finite. Three typical attractor patterns are identified. Hurst exponents are very high, i.e., from 0.85 to 0.95, indicating very strong persistent properties of PHPs. Curves of correlation integral versus radius of hypersphere indicate two linear sections for water PHPs, corresponding to both high frequency, low amplitude, and low frequency, large amplitude oscillations. At small inclination angles near horizontal, correlation dimensions are not uniform at different turns of PHPs. The non-uniformity of correlation dimensions is significantly improved with increases in inclination angles. Effect of inclination angles on the chaotic parameters is complex for FC-72 PHPs, but it is certain that correlation dimensions and Kolmogorov entropies are increased with increases in inclination angles. The optimal charge ratios are about 60-70%, at which correlation dimensions and Kolmogorov entropies are high. The higher the heating power, the larger the correlation dimensions and Kolmogorov entropies are. For most runs, large correlation dimensions and Kolmogorov entropies correspond to small thermal resistances, i.e., better thermal performance, except for FC-72 PHPs at small inclination angles of theta < 15 degrees.