Avaliação de um modelo algébrico térmico para a simulação de escoamentos bifásicos líquido-gás em golfadas com predição de mudança de fase e correção de propriedades físico-químicas

Abstract

The correct modelling of the two-phase liquid-gas flow in pipes under slug flow pattern is a challenge to several industries, and the oil & gas companies stand out among them. Identifying this flow pattern and quantifying its characteristic parameters are nowadays one of the most important goals to be reached due to its importance to the work of engineers and designers alike. The knowledge of the aforementioned variables allows those professionals to hone the design of specific oil-gas equipment such as separators and multiphase pumps, for example. With those considerations in mind, the NUEM has developed a simulator – known as NuemFlow – which can monitor thermo-hydraulic gradients of oil-gas-water mixtures in horizontal pipes under slug flow pattern, and calculate their physical-chemical properties in these conditions. The main goal of this report is to evaluate the efficiency of the software in monitoring the main parameters of the slug flow under the conditions that this pattern occurs, as well as testing its equations in order to check the sanity of NuemFlow’s algorithm. The development of this report is necessary so that, in the future, the aforementioned software may be turned into a computational tool whose use will hopefully help oil and gas companies to increase and optimize their production levels. The developed report shows that NuemFlow is a computational tool that is able to monitoring the slug flow phases among the pipe as well as to predict flow parameter like pressure drop, transactional velocity (UT) and temperature. In complement it was verified that, besides of doing the physical-chemical properties correction while the slug flow happens, the simulator is sensitive to changes in entrance properties as pipe diameter, superficial velocity of the phases, final pressure and temperature.