Premium
Pressure drop in three‐phase oil–water–gas horizontal co‐current flow: experimental data and development of prediction models
Author(s) -
Spedding P. L.,
Murphy Adrian,
Donnelly G. F.,
Benard E.,
Doherty A. P.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.165
Subject(s) - pressure drop , turbulence , drop (telecommunication) , volumetric flow rate , mechanics , flow coefficient , flow (mathematics) , chemistry , thermodynamics , petroleum engineering , geology , physics , engineering , electrical engineering
Pressure‐loss data are reported for three‐phase oil–water–gas flow in horizontal pipes of 0.0259 and 0.0501 m i.d. The pressure profiles exhibited a maximum value above a critical gas rate, which progressively moved to higher oil ratios as the gas rate was increased due to increased turbulence within the system. The actual pressure‐drop profiles obtained depended mainly on the flow regimes present within the system. As the pipe diameter was reduced, the pressure drop was observed to increase for the same flow conditions. Above a critical gas rate the magnitude of the pressure drop was higher if approached for the oil‐dominated (OD) region compared to the opposite direction. A momentum‐balance model was proposed for prediction of the pressure drop, which gave improved performance over other existing methods. Copyright © 2008 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.