iv
The primary objective of this study is to understand the mechanism, the
hydraulics and the characteristics, of the two-phase flow in horizontal annuli.
While achieving this goal, both theoretical and experimental works have been
conducted extensively. The METU-PETE-CTMFL (Middle East Technical
University, Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Department, Cuttings
Transport and Multiphase Flow Laboratory) multiphase flow loop consists of
4.84 m long eccentric horizontal acrylic pipes having 0.1143m inner diameter
(I.D) acrylic casing - 0.0571m outer diameter (O.D) drillpipe and 0.0932m I.D
acrylic casing - 0.0488m O.D drillipipe geometric configurations. During each
experiment, differential pressure loss data obtained from digital and analog
pressure transmitters at a given liquid and gas flow rate were recorded. The
flow patterns were identified visually. Meanwhile a mechanistic model has been
developed. The flow pattern identification criteria proposed originally for twophase
flow through pipes by Taitel and Dukler1 has been inherited and modified
for the eccentric annular geometry. The complex geometry of eccentric annuli
has been represented by a new single diameter definition, namely
representative diameter dr. The representative diameter has been used while
calculating the pressure losses. A computer code based on the algorithm of the
proposed mechanistic model has been developed in Matlab 7.0.4. Both the flow
pattern prediction and the frictional pressure loss estimation are compared with
the gathered experimental data. Moreover, friction factor correlations have
been developed for each flow pattern using experimental data and statistical
methods. The performance of the proposed model and the friction factor
correlations has been evaluated from experimental data. The mechanistic
model developed in this study accurately predicts flow pattern transitions and
frictional pressure losses. The model&rsquo / s pressure loss estimations are within
± / 30% for two different annular flow geometries.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12607243/index.pdf |
Date | 01 May 2006 |
Creators | Omurlu, Cigdem |
Contributors | Ozbayoglu, Evren Mehmet |
Publisher | METU |
Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | M.S. Thesis |
Format | text/pdf |
Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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