The Flow Pattern Study On Oil-Gas-Water Three-Phase Flow In Horizontal Pipeline

At present, with deeply exploitation of the oil field in the eastern land of CHINA, the water-cut of most oil wells exceeded by 85%, and some have even reached 95%. Using the original method of mixing hot water into oil-gas-water pipelines gathering and transportation crude oil energy consumption was huge. The oil-gas-water mixture flew from the well head to the transfer station belongs to multiphase flow, under different flow patterns corresponding to different hydraulic models. The study on oil-gas-water three-phase flow pattern was the basis for determining mixed transportation limits with super high water-cut, researching of hydro-thermal calculation method and scientific operation management of gathering and transferring system. In this paper we studied on the effect of oil-gas-water three-phase flow pattern in horizontal pipe line with the variation of flow parameters.In order to study oil-gas-water three-phase flow pattern, the gathering and transferring pipelines were transformed, experiment facilities were set on these pipes, in oil fields a series of flow pattern experiments were carried out. Through carrying out experiments on oil-gas-water three-phase flow pattern by controlling water amount and temperature, flow pattern, pressure and temperature were tested, the trends of oil-gas-water three-phase flow pattern were analyzed that they changed with water amount and temperature.1360 groups of oil-gas-water three-phase flow pattern photographs and the corresponding flow parameters have been acquired. Five flow patterns are summarized in horizontal circular gathering and transferring pipeline for the first time, including stratified flow, three-layer disturbed flow, wave surging flow, gas bombs mixing flow and complete mixing flow. We give the range of corresponding parameters to each flow pattern, and explained the typical character of each flow pattern.VOF model in fluent software were used to simulate oil-water two-phase stratified flow, oil-bearing rate, speed, viscosity of the two-phase distribution were obtained, and the effect of oil-water two-phase flow pattern with different parameter were discussed.