Numerical Study on Stability of Water Annulus Transportation of Heavy Oil in Horizontal Pipe
The stability of water annulus transportation of heavy oil poses a significant challenge.The CFD software was used to study the factors of oil-water density difference,viscosity difference and oil-water two-phase velocity.Simulation results demonstrate that reducing the oil-water density difference leads to decreased pressure gradient,reduced eccentricity,and increased oil transportation efficiency(η),and the maximum η can reach 11.54.Although an increase in oil phase viscosity results in higher pressure gradient,it improves η significantly,with a maximum η value reaching 92.47.In the case of variable water velocity,too small water velocity will form stratified flow with large pressure gradient.After the formation of stable water annular,too large water velocity will increase the total flux of pipeline and reduce η.The increase of oil velocity will increase the pressure gradient,and there is a peak value of η,and there is an optimal velocity range.
water annulus transportationstabilitycomputational fluid dynamicsheavy oil
万方数据
维普
