High viscous oil–water two–phase flow: experiments & numerical simulations

Archibong-Eso, Archibong; Shi, Jing; Baba, Yahaya D.; Aliyu, Aliyu M.; Raji, Yusuf O.; Yeung, Hoi

Abstract

An experimental study on highly viscous oil-water two-phase flow conducted in a 5.5 m long and 25.4 mm internal diameter (ID) pipeline is presented. Mineral oil with viscosity ranging from 3.5 Pa.s – 5.0 Pa.s and water were used as test fluid for this study. Experiments were conducted for superficial velocities of oil and water ranging from 0.06 to 0.55 m/s and 0.01 m/s to 1.0 m/s respectively. Axial pressure measurements were made from which the pressure gradients were calculated. Flow pattern determination was aided by high definition video recordings. Numerical simulation of experimental flow conditions is performed using a commercially available Computational Fluid Dynamics code. Results show that at high oil superficial velocities, Core Annular Flow (CAF) is the dominant flow pattern while Oil Plug in Water Flow (OPF) and Dispersed Oil in Water (DOW) flow patterns are dominant high water superficial velocities. Pressure Gradient results showed a general trend of reduction to a minimum as water superficial velocity increases before subsequently increasing on further increasing the superficial water velocity. The CFD results performed well in predicting the flow configurations observed in the experiments.

Citation

Archibong-Eso, A., Shi, J., Baba, Y. D., Aliyu, A. M., Raji, Y. O., & Yeung, H. (2019). High viscous oil–water two–phase flow: experiments & numerical simulations. Heat and Mass Transfer, 55(3), 755-767. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-2461-9

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 21, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 28, 2018
• Publication Date: 2019-03
• Deposit Date: Mar 13, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 29, 2019
• Journal: Heat and Mass Transfer
• Print ISSN: 0947-7411
• Electronic ISSN: 1432-1181
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 755-767
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-2461-9
• Keywords: General Engineering; Condensed Matter Physics; Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1635168
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00231-018-2461-9
• Additional Information: This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Heat and Mass Transfer. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-2461-9.