Comparative and sensitivity study of the effects of flow parameters on pressure drop in vertical tubing

Abstract

"Two-phase gas-liquid flow occurs in vertical pipes during the production of reservoir fluids. The two most common flow patterns that are observed during oil production are the Bubble and Slug flows. Determination of pressure drop in two-phase flow is more complicated than single-phase flow because two fluids with different densities flow in the tubing at different velocities. Using two multiphase correlations (Hagedorn and Brown, and Duns and Ros), the effect of fluid properties variation at different flow conditions on pressure drop were studied. Fluid data developed with correlations and West Sak fluid data were used for the analysis. Plots showing the relationship between pressure drop and different fluid properties were made. From the analysis, it was concluded that oil density, oil viscosity and oil flow rate are the three factors that influence pressure drop in vertical pipes the most. The Hagedorn and Brown correlation was shown to be able to compute pressure drop for high-viscosity oil"--Leaf iii