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a
Laboratrio de Automao em Petrleo - LAUT, Centro de Tecnologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte,
Campus Universitrio, Lagoa Nova, CEP 59072-970, Natal/RN/Brasil.
b
Departamento de Engenharia Qumica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande Do Norte.
c
Departamento de Engenharia de Petrleo, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte.
ABSTRACT
Artificial lift methods can be implemented in the oil industry in order to increase the production rate of
flowing oil or gas wells. Electrical Submersible Pumping (ESP) is a complex and viable method of artificial
lift that is applicable to a wide range of flow rates. ESP systems are responsible for the highest amount of
total fluids produced by any artificial lift method. This paper presents a 3D simulation of the stationary
flow in the impeller and stator of a mixed centrifugal pump using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
techniques and a commercial software, ANSYS CFX Release 11.0. Three conditions were simulated to
obtain the pressure fields in the impeller and stator in a stage of the pump. Comparisons among the
simulations of the present work and the head capacity of the performance curve given by pump
manufacturer were performed and showed satisfactory agreement.
KEYWORDS
Centrifugal pumps; numerical simulation; ESP systems; Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); performance
curves.
1
To whom all correspondence should be addressed.
Address: | Telephone/Fax number: (55) 84 3215-3940 /(55) 84 3215-3940 |e-mail: maitelli@ufrnet.br
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS | v. 4 n. 1 | p. 001-009 | 2010 | ISSN 1982-0593
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS | v. 4 n. 1 | p. 001-009 | 2010 | ISSN 1982-0593
Figure 1. 3D/CAD drawing of the impeller, diffuser, entire pump (impeller and diffuser), from left to right.
impeller outlet
Impeller inlet
Figure 2. Meridional profiles of diffuser and impeller, modeled in BladeGen/ANSYS CFX 11.0.
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS | v. 4 n. 1 | p. 001-009 | 2010 | ISSN 1982-0593
p pressure
also,
F body forces
P 2
V C 1
C 2 (4) molecular viscosity
k k
t turbulent viscosity
t
(6) 2.3 Simulation parameters, discretization,
boundary conditions
The three-dimensional flow simulations were
performed in the commercial software, based on
The terms C 1 , C 2 , k e in the Equations
CFD techniques, ANSYS CFX release 11.0. Water
(3) and (4) are typical constants in the k was the single phase fluid chosen in this study, at
turbulence model and their values are: standard conditions, with density equals 1000
kg/m3. The impeller rotational speed was set at
C1 1.44; C 2 1.92; k 1.0 e 1.3 3500 rpm. For each condition (C1, C2 e C3), ten
(10) flow rates were simulated.
P is the generation rate of turbulent kinetic
energy, and can be calculated with the expression: The selected convergence criteria of mass
equations were maximum residual of 0.0001 for
root-mean-square (RMS). All the simulations were
carried out in a computer with Intel(R) Core (TM)2
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS | v. 4 n. 1 | p. 001-009 | 2010 | ISSN 1982-0593
Quad processor, with a 3.0-GHz CPU and 8.0 Gb of interaction between the two components in the
RAM. Due to computational limitations, software pump stage (impeller plus diffuser) must generate
characteristics and problem symmetry, in the friction losses mainly in the case of smallest flow
problem domain, just one passage (or channel) was rates.
modeled in the impeller and diffuser. The meshes
were generated by ANSYS CFX 11.0 with wedge For C2 and C3, conditions of the impeller
elements, pyramid elements and tetrahedral coupled with the diffuser, an identical tendency to
elements in a non-structured mesh, which is more the experimental curve was verified. In the C2
appropriate to discretize irregular geometries condition, in spite of the same behavior if
(Maliska, 2004). The choice for the interface compared with the manufacturer curve, large
between the impeller and the diffuser was frozen losses occur due to the coupling with the diffuser
rotor, typical for turbomachines in ANSYS CFX will occur. This fact is associated to geometric
11.0, specific for the steady state flow regime and simplifications established to allow the coupling
composed structures with a rotative part (the between the impeller and the diffuser, besides
impeller) and a fixed part (the diffuser) (Ansys CFX physical and numerical reasons such as
Reference Guide, 2006). The reference pressure in convergence problems, flow instabilities and
all cases was adjusted to one (1) atm. recirculation problems. To overcome such
difficulties, the C3 condition was investigated, with
The boundary conditions were set as follows: a the blades extended by four (4) mm obtaining
total uniform pressure of one (1) atm at inlet and better results if compared with the manufacturer
variable mass flow rate at outlet. These choices head curve. Figures 4 to 9 show the meridional
have resulted in robust and right solutions in the profiles of the impeller and the diffuser channels
scope of the computational tool utilized (Ansys CFX for C1, C2 and C3. The figures show the pressure
- Solver Modeling Guide, 2006). Periodicity profiles when the volumetric flow rate is 2500 bpd.
conditions were adjusted due to problem
symmetry and solid walls not crossing the fluids
were set for each run. The summary of boundary
conditions and simulation parameters are shown in
Table 2.
The curves obtained from CFD model show a The pressure in C1 and C2 conditions were
same tendency of behavior for the three cases in identical in the impeller outlet. For the values of
study. This tendency was compared with pressure obtained in the outlet impeller and in the
manufacturer experimental curve. For the first diffuser entrance (C2 e C3) the values of pressure
condition (C1), the simulation was carried out with are continuous at the interface. This fact is an
the impeller, without considering the diffuser for evidence of the interaction between the two
the numerical analysis. It can be observed that, for structures and their meshes: the rotative impeller
the smallest flow rates, there occurs an excessive and the fixed diffuser.
head increase. This phenomenon happens because
the diffuser is not considered in the simulation. The
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS | v. 4 n. 1 | p. 001-009 | 2010 | ISSN 1982-0593
Turbulence model
Impeller/diffuser
Frozen rotor Frozen rotor
interface
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS | v. 4 n. 1 | p. 001-009 | 2010 | ISSN 1982-0593
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS | v. 4 n. 1 | p. 001-009 | 2010 | ISSN 1982-0593
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BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM AND GAS | v. 4 n. 1 | p. 001-009 | 2010 | ISSN 1982-0593
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