Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
(2.1.1)
(2.1.2)
The liquid phase contains both oil and water:
(2.1.3)
Where
(oil),
(water) and
(2.1.4)
In the end, superficial velocities could be rewritten as:
(2.1.5)
(2.1.6)
As the cross-sectional area occupied by liquid phase is smaller than that of the entire pipe, we
could find that in-situ velocity (considering liquid hold-up) is then higher than superficial
velocity.
To know the final mixture velocity the following equation shall be considered:
(2.1.7)
2.2 Liquid hold-up
When two or more phases are present in a pipe, in most cases gas flows faster than the
liquid, that is to say that
):
(2.2.1)
Liquid and Gas Holdup (
):
(2.2.2)
When slip occurs, then:
2.3 Gas-liquid mixture density and flowing velocity
Pressure gradients on multiphase lines normally lie in the range 0-1.5 kg/cm
2
/km but a
more useful way of addressing if flowing conditions are acceptable is to check whether the
velocity of the fluid is in a required threshold.
The actual (not the superficial) liquid velocity
(2.3.1)
At the maximum throughput conditions the mixture velocity
(2.3.2)
Where:
(2.3.3)
Where:
P = operating pressure, psia
at standard conditions
T = operating temperature, R
[ (
(2.4.1)
(2.4.2)
The viscosity increase that happens with the variation of the water fraction was found to
had a peak at the inversion between W/O and O/W emulsions. This mixture viscosity was
found to increase initially as the fraction of the dispersed phase (water) increased up to a point
where it would then decrease. This can be seen in Figure 3.
Figure 2: Mixture viscosity as it evolves with input water fraction (Arirachakaran 1989)
Various models for calculating the viscosity of liquid-liquid dispersions can generally be
grouped into three main categories, namely linear, exponential and power function models.
Table 2.4.1: Mixture viscosity of oil-water emulsions (Ngan 2011)
Based on results obtained and easiness of application, it is recommended the usage of any
of the power functions such as the one developed by Brinkman/Roscoe or the following by
Barnea & Mizrahi which showed great results:
(2.4.3)
The phase inversion range is shifted to lower water fractions in a plastic pipe compared to
a steel one and also by increasing flow velocity, the inversion region width decreases as the
dispersion becomes more homogeneous. Normally from the point obtained there exist a +-
10% of uncertainty in which the inversion point could develop (Ngan 2011).
To address the issue of the sudden change of mixture viscosity along the lines of the
continuous and disperse phases, an emulsification index is introduced as looking at existing
methods, we identify two extremes of possibilities. Power functions (that is Brinkman or
Barnea as well) correlations represents one extreme in which there is total emulsification,
giving very high emulsion viscosities up to the inversion point. And on the other side, the
weighted-average method assumes no interfacial interaction between the dispersed and the
continuous phases, that is, there is total absence of emulsification. In practice, the truth is
somewhere in between. A formal definition of emulsification index would be as follows:
Emulsification index (Ei) is the extent to which the viscosity of a water-in-oil emulsion is
determined by power functions correlations.
Emulsification index will conventionally be taken as ranging from 0 to 1. For a fully
emulsified mixture,
. This is equivalent to
the weighted-mean assumption. Viscosity of an emulsion is then calculated as comprising
partly of the value given by power functions, and partly by the weighted average. For
simplification purposes,
(2.1.15)
What the final equation may look like:
(2.1.16)
2.5 Viscosity measurements normalization.
As a way of addressing the issue of having a normalized viscosity per area we used the
ASTM D341 standard to convert viscosity at different temperatures. Given two known
kinematic viscosities at two temperatures this standard gives means to ascertain kinematic
viscosity of a petroleum oil or liquid hydrocarbon at any temperature within a limited range.
(2.5.1)
And Z is the result of:
(2.5.2)
Where,
2.6 Friction factor (no-slip)
As a way to calculate the no-slip friction factor (Darcy-Weisbach) what is normally used is
the Colebrooks equation. The downside is that as it is an implicit equation is not easy to
calculate and so many approximations were covered. We recommend the use of Haaland
equation as it provides reasonably good statistical parameters and required few hand
calculations.
{ [(
] }
(2.6.1)
3 LINE SIZING AND PRESSURE DROP
To begin designing it is required to set the specifications of the line size to meet the
required capacity with the pressure constraints available. And although it is important to size a
line to meet pressure requirements one has to ensure that flowing conditions provide good
operating conditions.
The total pressure drop
(3.1)
The recommended pressure drop method is the Beggs & Brill correlation (Beggs and
Brill 1973) as it is considered one of the most reliable one among the most widely used as it is
also capable of working properly along different pipeline inclinations. It normally over-
predicts pressure drop by between 0-30%, and by doing so it provides a mean of conservation.
3.1 Frictional pressure loss
The frictional pressure gradient shall be given by the following equation:
(3.1.1)
Where:
(3.2.1)
Where:
(3.5.1)
Where:
liquid hold-up
Froude number
(3.5.2)
The coefficients a, b and c are given in Table 3.5.1, and the calculated hold-up is restricted
to
Flow Pattern a b c
Segregated 0.980 0.4846 0.0868
Intermittent 0.845 0.5351 0.0173
Distributed 1.065 0.5824 0.0609
Table 3.5.1: Liquid hold-up coefficients (Beggs & Brill 1973).
Based on its value for the horizontal case, holdup for the actual inclination angle is
calculated from the following equation:
(3.5.3)
The holdup correcting factor (), for the effect of pipe inclination is given by:
(3.5.4)
Where is the actual angle of the pipe from horizontal. C is:
) (3.5.5)
The values of parameters, e, f, g and h are shown for each flow regimes in this Table:
Flow Pattern e f g h
Segregated uphill 0.011 -3.768 3.539 -1.614
Intermittent uphill 2.96 0.305 -0.4473 0.0978
Distributed uphill No correction C = 0 , = 1
All patterns downhill 4.70 -0.3692 0.1244 -0.5056
Table 3.5.2: Liquid hold-up coefficients (Beggs & Brill 1973).
For vertical flow, i.e. =90 the correction function is simplified to:
(3.5.6)
If in the transition flow pattern, liquid holdup is calculated from a weighted average of its
values valid in the segregated and intermittent flow patterns:
(3.5.7)
Where:
(3.5.7)
3.6 Friction factor determination
The two-phase friction factor
(3.6.1)
Where:
(3.6.2)
Where:
(3.6.3)
(3.6.4)
The parameter S can be calculated as follows:
For
For y=0, then S=0 (to ensure that the expression is reduced to single-phase liquid)
(3.6.5)
(3.6.6)
4 DATA INTEGRATION AND COMPUTER SIMULATION
Once we have set our boundary conditions and also the calculation model we proceed to
the actual simulation of the
4.1 GIS data acquisition application
The main purpose of this application is to integrate available data and represent it in a way
that can be employed to performed fluid pressure drop calculations. As this will be an over-
night run application so data related to every pipeline in the network is analyzed.
Pipeline network information is stored in a GIS corporate database, mainly by the usage of
proprietary software by ESRI. Data is held in ArcSDE geodatabase which are a collection of
various types of GIS datasets held as tables in a relational database. ArcSDE geodatabase
storage for all DBMSs uses the OGC and ISO standards for an SQL spatial data type. This
provides full geodatabase support and access as well as an SQL interface to feature class
geometry. This enables you to write SQL applications to your DBMS which you can use to
access feature class geometry and perform SQL operations and queries. The spatial type for
SQL.
The first task of this application is the subdivision of the entire network into pipeline units.
A point called "node" is artificially created along pipeline network at the following locations
Oil-Wells
In-field manifolds
Battery manifolds
Treatment Plants
Two or more pipelines junction
Pipeline material change point
Pipeline diameter change point
Each pipeline segment between nodes is treated as an individual unit. Later on, fluid
pressure drop will be calculated for each of these units.
Total length is calculated adding up the lengths of the segments between nodes.
Topographic elevations of start and end nodes are determined by matching them to the
Digital Elevation Model (DEM).
Finally, volumetric flow rate is calculated by adding up flow rates from all pipelines
converging to the one under analysis.
4.2 Computational simulation
With an established mathematical model and all input parameters determined we can
proceed to the actual simulation.
For the computational simulation we will use standard office software (namely Microsoft
Excel) which can easily create a dynamic link between the database and data tables. For
calculation purposes we recommend avoiding over complex VBA programming and the use
of array formulas particularly if they are nested inside IF statements. We also do not
recommend the usage of VLOOKUP or INDEX+MATCH functions over large data tables.
We recommend the usage of multi-variable data tables found inside the Excel API; the use of
these tables could reduce end processing time by more than 2 orders of magnitude.
Calculated data is then automatically exported to a csv (coma separated values) file which
is then joined with the data already held in the geodatabase and is to be displayed on a map.
Figure 5: Results being showed on ArcMap (ESRI)
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we presented an innovative methodology to calculate and display fluid
pressure drop in Oil & Gas pipelines.
A complete mathematical model to estimate fluid pressure drop is presented. The
aforementioned model holds adequate results when used to solve Oil & Gas industry related
problems. This model addressed multiphase pressure drop calculations as well as kinematic
viscosity and mixture density prediction.
We also presented a solution to readily acquire input parameters required to perform the
above stated calculations and to graphically present their results, using GIS database and
system. This does not require the use of any software that is not already available in most Oil
& Gas companies so the level of required investment to implement this calculation is really
low.
We tested our simulations against real data on the field and, on average, the model
overestimated pressure drop in around 10 to 30%. This shows that error is on the safe side and
that it is small enough to be practically applicable.
REFERENCES
Brill, J., Beggs, H., 1991, Two-Phase Flow in Pipes, 6
th
edition, University of Tulsa
Garca, F., Garci, J. M., Garca, R. and Joseph, D. D., 2007, Friction factor improved
correlations for laminar and turbulent gas-liquid flow in horizontal pipelines, International
Journal of Multiphase Flow, Volume 33, p. 1320 1336
IPS, 1996, Engineering Standard for Process Design of Piping Systems, Iranian Petroleum
Standard
Ngan, K.H., 2011, Phase inversion in dispersed liquid-liquid pipe flow (Doctoral thesis),
University College London
Takcs, G., 2005, Gas Lift Manual, 1
st
edition, PennWell Books
Wang, W., Cheng, W., Li, K., Loun, C. and Gong, J., 2013, Flow Patterns Transition Law of
Oil-Water Two-Phase Flow under a Wide Range of Oil Phase Viscosity Condition, Journal
of Applied Mathematics, Volume 2013
Xu, Y., Fang, X., Su, X., Zhou, Z., Chen, W., 2012, Evaluation of frictional pressure drop
correlations for two-phase flow in pipes, Nuclear Engineering and Design Journal, Volume
253, p. 86-97
Beggs, H. D., and Brill, J.P., 1973, A Study of Two-Phase Flow in Inclined Pipes, Journal of
Petroleum Technology, p. 607-617
Arirachakaran, S., Oglesby, K.D., Malinowsky, M. S., Shoham, O., Brill, J.P., 1989, An
Analysis of Oil/Water Flow Phenomena in Horizontal Pipes, Paper SPE 18836, Society of
Petroleum Engineers, Oklahoma
Brennen, C., 2005, Fundamentals of Multiphase Flow, Cambridge University Press
ASTM Standard D341, 2009, Standard Practice for Viscosity-Temperature Charts for Liquid
Petroleum Products, ASTM International
API Standard 14E RP, 2013, Recommended Practice for Design and Installation of Offshore
Products Platform Piping Systems, American Petroleum Institute