We invite you to SPE young professionals meeting on " Mathematical Modeling of the Slug Flow Induced by the Pipeline Geometry." Pavel Spesivtsev, Schlumberger, Moscow
SPE Young Professionals meeting, November 24, 2016
Meeting will take place on November 24,Thursday, at 1900 hours at Sushchevskiy val, 2, Moscow.
Preliminary registration is required!
Please reserve a place and send your full name (including middle name), company and job title to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. not later than 1200 on November 21. You will have a confirmation after you’re registered.
Looking forward to seeing you!
More details about the topic
In the simultaneous flow of gas and liquid in pipelines and wellbores, slug flows can occur. During such flows, the system becomes unstable, with pressures and flow rates changing significantly in space and time. These variations can be observed even for steady-state boundary conditions such as constant pressure at the pipe outlet and constant gas and liquid rates at the pipe inlet. In hilly terrain pipelines, the undulating trajectory may lead to the formation of terrain-induced slugs. If the configuration consists of a near-horizontal pipeline connected with a vertical riser, the transient behavior observed in such systems is referred to as severe slugging. The principal mechanisms leading to the formation of the slug flow are the same in both cases. The transient behavior is caused mainly by the competition between gravity-dominated liquid flow and compressibility of the gas phase. On the one hand, the liquid accumulates in the lower parts of the system and subsequently blocks the free gas flow. On the other hand, the compressibility of gas allows for the pressure to increase gradually in the trapped gas volume. Once the gas pressure reaches some critical value, rapid outflow from the system occurs and the process is repeated, often in cycles. Accurate prediction of the slug flow is important for proper design of the rig surface equipment.
The previously published transient experimental data on multi-phase flows in complex configurations with near-horizontal segments is closely investigated. The problem is studied using the drift-flux and multi-fluid mathematical models. The numerical implementation of the drift-flux model is briefly described and the grid convergence of numerical solution is demonstrated. By varying the specific tuning parameters of the drift velocity, a close match with the transient experimental data for air-water flows is obtained. To verify the quality of numerical solution and agreement with experimental data the problem specific criteria are introduced. This criteria are the time of the first slug arrival, average amplitude of slugs, average period between the slugs, average cumulative liquid production per slug, and total produced mass over the observation period. The model developed was used to predict severe slugging for the synthetic case involving the flow of hydrocarbon oil and gas and representative of the realistic field scale problem. The possible ways of further improving the mathematical models are outlined.
About authors
Pavel is a Project Manager in the Production Dynamics Department of Schlumberger Moscow Research. Pavel is focused on mathematical modeling of transient multi-phase phenomena taking place in wellbores, fractures, and reservoirs during early production stages.
Pavel holds a PhD degree in Earth Sciences from IFP Energies nouvelles, Rueil-Malmaison, France.