Numerical Simulation And Structural Optimization Of Angular Oil - Water Separator

In company with the sharp increase of water cut in oilfield produced fluid,makes the process of gathering and transportation energy consumption increasing,the load operation of oil-water separators will be increased greatly.Consequently,research and development of new highly efficient oli-water separator,to achieve the rapid separation of produced fluid is a problem to be solved in the production process of the oilfields.Inclined oil-water separator belongs to the gravitational oil-water separator,combination of horizontal and vertical separator,using inclined design,overcome the many defects of the traditional separators,can achieve the rapid pre-separation of water and oil two phases.This paper is based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, investigate the inclined oil-water separator and carry the numerical simulation by means of Fluent.The structure of the inclined oil-water separator has been optimized to improve the efficiency of oil-water separate.The hole paper is mainly carried out the following aspects:(1) Analysis of the structure of the inclined oil-water separator and separation mechanism,clear the main factors affecting the efficiency of oil-water separation.Establish the computational fluid dynamics model of the inclined oil-water separator,using the Eulerian multiphase-flow model combined with the Realizablek-ε turbulence model to conduct the numerical simulation for the flow field inside separator.Obtain the movement and distribution of the oil-water two-phase flow within the separator.(2) Using orthogonal experimental design method to determine the structure parameters of factors and evels.To identify the sequence of the structural parameters of oil-water separation of the primary and secondary by range analysis 50 set of numerical simulation results.Draw the cuve of the impact of various factors on the separation efficiency, obtain the optimal value of the structural parameters of the separator.(3) According to the results of orthogonal experiment,comprehensive analysis of structural parameters on the impact of the oil-water separation efficiency.The optimal structural model confirmatory simulation was conducted,the structure of the weir plate was improved by attempt.Therefore,the separation of oil-water efficiency has been further improved.(4) Field application test was taken on the structural parameters optimizated inclined oil-water separator.Different angle,under different residence time of oil-water separation test use to test validated the numerial results and error analysis was taken.The research result show that:inclined oil-water separator get the characteristic of large oil-water interface,high separation efficiency,large handling capacity. Sub-tube horizontal position, number and diameter of holes on the Sub-tube has a greater impact on oil-water separation efficiency, Sub-tube vertical position and the position of the water weir plate has a smaller impact on oil-water separation efficiency.Optimal structural parameters by orthogonal test of the inclined oil-water separator has a higher oil-water separation efficiency of 95.31%,compared with before the optimization of the structure parameters,the separation efficiency has increased 5.338%.