An overview of CFD applications in flow assurance

From well head to the platform

Simon Lo

Contents From well head to the platform

Heat transfer in Christmas tree

Multiphase flow in long pipe
Severe slugging in riser
Sand transport in pipes
Temperature effects in transportation of viscous oil
Hydrate formation
Slug flow around pipe elbow
Riser V&V
3 phase separator
Wave impact on platform
Launching of lifeboat

Flow in and around a Christmas tree

Flow inside a Christmas tree

Temperature distribution inside a Christmas tree

Oil and gas flow in 100m pipeline

Severe slugging in riser, Uni of Cranfield, UK

Experiment
Star-CD-1
Star-CD-2

Riser DP, bar

0.8

Riser top

0.6
0.4
0.2
0
50

100

150

200
Flow time t, s

250

300

4 inch riser
Riser DP = Pbase - Ptop
10.5 m
55 m pipeline
Riser base

350

DEM particle transport in pipe

DEM - Pneumatic conveying of particles in pipe

Slurry flow in horizontal

pipe
Horizontal slurry pipeline flow
Uniform solid volume fraction (vf)
and slurry velocity (V)

Measurement plane
1m

D
L=10m

Liquid velocity

Inlet
Particle volume fraction

Middle

Outlet

Slurry flow in pipe

Uniform solid volume fraction (vf)
and slurry velocity (V)

Measurement plane
1m

D
L=10m
d=90 m, vf=0.19,
D=103mm, V=3 m/s

d=165 m, vf=0.189,
D=51.5mm, V=4.17 m/s

d=270 m, vf=0.2,
D=51.5mm V=5.4 m/s

d=165 m, vf=0.0918
D=51.5mm V=3.78 m/s

d=480 m, vf=0.203,
D=51.5mm V=3.41 m/s

d=165 m, vf=0.273,
D=495mm V=3.46 m/s

Effects of cooling in transportation of viscous oil

Temperature, density and viscosity after 200m.

Density

Temperature

Viscosity

20 cP

120 cP

Wall shear stress and pressure drop along pipe

Increase in wall shear stress and pressure drop as viscosity
increases.

0.35
0.30

With cooling

Shear Stress [N]

0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10

Isothermal

0.05
0.00

Sec. Sec. Sec. Sec. Sec. Sec. Sec. Sec. Sec. Sec.
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
A-1 0.084 0.075 0.075 0.075 0.075 0.075 0.075 0.075 0.075 0.075
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
A-2 0.145 0.174 0.203 0.226 0.247 0.264 0.280 0.293 0.305 0.315
5
0
0
9
3
9
2
6
2
4

A CFD hydrate formation model

Oil-dominated 3 phase flow

Oil

Water

Gas

Hydrate + water

Hydrate

Eulerian multiphase flow model:

Phase 1: Oil continuous fluid
Phase 2: Gas dispersed bubbles
Phase 3: Water/hydrate dispersed droplets (fH=0) turn into
hydrate particles (fH=1)

Hydrate formation process

1.
2.

3.

Methane (CH4) from gas bubbles is dissolved into the oil.

Water droplets come into contact with dissolved CH4, turn into
hydrate particles when the temperature drops below the
hydrate nucleation temperature.
The dissolved gas is consumed in the hydrate formation
process.

Oil

Water

Gas

Hydrate + water

Hydrate

Temperature, hydrate and dissolved gas

Hydrate fraction in water

(Hydrate starts to form when
temperature drops below 15.6C.)
Temperature of oil
(Note areas cooler than hydrate
nucleation temperature of
15.6C.)

Mass fraction of dissolved gas in oil

(Dissolved gas is consumed in hydrate formation
and recovered when hydrate formation is
completed.)

Pigging Overset mesh for moving pig

Stratified gas-liquid flow

Dispersed solid-liquid flow

Dynamic forces on pipe elbow in slug flow

Model the long pipe

using OLGA with slug
tracking
Pressure and temperature

Mass flux, velocity and density of each phase

Flow direction
Model pipe elbow using STAR-CCM+

Pressure variation due to slug flow pass elbow

Note the passing of liquid
slug in blue.

Gas volume fraction

Note the increase in pressure as

liquid slug passes.

Pressure on the outer part

Comparison

Slug frequency (Hz)

Coupling model

Experiment

0.5

0.5

slug front: 2.8 to 3.6

Slug velocity (m/s)

slug tail: 3.0 to 3.5

3.6

Peak force on bend (N)

44 to 54

40 to 60

Maximum force on bend (N)

54

60

In industrial design with safety factor 2: maximum force 141 N

Flow-Merging T-junctions

Application Proving Group

Planar
60

90

21

Jumpers

Application Proving Group

JumperRec

JumperBend

22

Pig Launcher / Cross over

Application Proving Group

23

Oil Platform Riser Vortex Induced Vibration

Riser pipe via FV Stress

URANS (Unsteady-Reynolds Average NS)
k- turbulence model y+<10
2nd order time fluid and solid
Time step 1/100 of Vortex Shedding Period
Implicit Coupled Morphed 1 per time step
Good Agreement

Drag (Cd) Shedding (St), Natural frequency

24

Oil Platform Riser Vortex Induce Vibration

Mid-span cross-stream displacement

Mid-span stream-wise displacement

25

Separator

Modeling strategy:

Local model of diffuser and vane pack

Global model of separator
Upstream pipework

Gas outlet
Vane packs

Downcomer
Inlet
Vortex breaker

Inlet Diffuser
Baffle plate

Oil outlet

Nottingham Multiphase flow in bend pipes

Large bubbles
Medium bubbles
Small bubbles

Liquid

4-phase
model
27

3-phase separator
Oil

Gas

Water
Courtesy of
Rhine Ruhr /
LSIM Australia
28

Wave loading on platform

High fidelity with multi-physics:

Wind and wave loadings
Stress

High fidelity, large domain, time dependent

Launching of life boat

LIFEBOAT LAUNCHING
combined 6 DOF, overlapping mesh, VOF (compressible)

Conclusions

CFD is becoming more widely used in flow assurance to study:

Flow details in 3D: pipelines, equipment, junctions, valves,

Thermal management, conjugate heat transfer, cold down,
temperature dependent density and viscosity, hydrate, wax, ...
Fluid-structure interactions: VIV in risers, sloshing in tanks.

CFD technology is being developed to support the modelling of

the complex flows:

Advanced grid generation methods.

Advanced multiphase flow models.
Fast parallel solver to handle large complex models.
Powerful visualisation technique to explain the complex flow.