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Summary. Multiphase flow can occur throughout the production system. The fluids involved in multiphase
flow in the petroleum industry are multicomponent mixtures with complex phase behavior. Petroleum engineers
are faced with the need to predict the relationships between flow rates , pressure drop, and piping geometry for
reservoir fluids produced during the life of a field. This paper reviews the historical development of design
tools used to address these unique multiphase-flow features. State-of-the-art technology is also presented.
Introduction
Multiphase flow can occur throughout the entire Temperatures can range from 400°F [200°C] to
production system involved in flowing fluids from oil below the freezing temperature of water. Pipe lengths
and gas reservoirs to processing facilities at the can vary from a few feet to several hundred miles for
surface. The production system in this context surface pipe or pipelines and from a few hundred feet
includes the reservoir; the well completion ; the to more than 20,000 ft [6100 mJ for wells . Piping
tubulars that connect the reservoir to the surface ; all systems often involve significant variations in
surface facilities on land, seabed, or offshore geometry, such as inclination angle, diameter , pipe
platform; and any pipelines that carry produced fluids roughness, and even shape, such as when fluids flow
to other processing facilities . The multiphase flow in the annular space between casing and tubing in a
encountered in producing oil and gas can be any well bore. Although most vertical piping systems
combination of a natural gas phase, a hydrocarbon involve upflow, it is not uncommon to have
liquid phase, and a water phase. multiphase downward flow in injection wells or
A vast amount of technical information on downcomers connecting offshore platforms to subsea
multiphase flow in pipes is available in the literature. pipelines. Simulating multi phase flow in wells also
Many of these sources are related to other industries requires the ability to predict fluid temperatures in a
and involve different types of fluids. The reference system that undergoes complex heat transfer
list for this paper clearly demonstrates the diversity of phenomena between the reservoir and the surface.
interest in multiphase flow in pipes. In particular, The entire well bore is surrounded by a huge rock
significant contributions have been made in the volume, much of which may even be frozen, as in
nuclear industry, where a major concern is a possible the case of permafrost in arctic locations.
loss-of-coolant accident in a nuclear reactor. These Engineers in the petroleum industry are faced with
studies involve the transient simulation of two-phase, the requirement to predict the relationships between
single-component (water) fluid flow in piping flow rates, pressure drop , and piping geometry
systems. (length, diameter, angle, etc.) for the fluids produced
Multiphase flow in the petroleum industry has from a reservoir over the entire life of the field. The
many unique features that create complications not objective of this paper is to review the historical
encountered by other industries . The fluids involved development of design tools used to address the
are multicomponent mixtures whose phase behavior is unique multi phase-flow features of the petroleum
extremely complex . The range of pressures and industry , including an evaluation of the state of
temperatures encountered in production systems is the art.
extremely broad. Pressures can range from 15,000
psia [100 MPa] to near atmospheric conditions. Historical Development
The development of tools to assist engineers in
Copyright 1987 SOCiety of Petroleum Engineers predicting multiphase-flow behavior in wells, and thus
.....
sufficient to size tubing properly. At lower flow
rates, significant differences exist between the
velocities of the gas and liquid phases, a phenomenon
..
.' .
known as "slippage." In addition, the gas and liquid
no longer exist as homogeneous mixtures, but rather
form much different geometrical configurations. The
configurations or flow patterns found in vertical
t
BUBBLE SLUG
t t
CHURN
t
ANNULAR
upward flow are shown in Fig. I. The occurrence of
slippage between the gas and liquid phases and
complex flow patterns introduced complications that
FLOW FLOW FLOW FLOW
required development of new concepts.
Fig. 1-Flow patterns for upward vertical flow. Two different approaches are commonly used to
develop predictive tools for describing complex fluid-
mechanics problems. The empirical approach involves
properly selecting optimum pipe diameters to connect developing simplified models containing parameters
reservoirs with surface facilities, has followed a very that must be evaluated with experimental data.
logical history. Tracing this history requires a review Correlating variables typically are dimensionless
of three separate but interrelated topics. The first groups determined by performing a dimensional
involves understanding the basic fluid mechanics analysis of the phenomena involved. A classic
required to predict the interactions between the gas example of this for single-phase fluid flow is the
and liquid phases and the pressure drop. In general, Moody4 diagram, in which friction factors are
this involves developing expressions for conservation correlated as a function of Reynolds number and
of mass and linear momentum. Applying pressure- relative roughness for turbulent flows. The empirical
drop equations requires the ability to predict the approach does not address why or how things
physical properties of the gas and liquid phases. Thus happen, but can yield excellent results quickly.
the second topic is phase behavior. Finally, prediction depending on the proper selection of variables and the
of phase behavior also requires the ability to predict quality of data used for the correlation. The second
flowing temperatures of the fluids in a well. approach involves developing physically based
Temperature prediction involves applying the mechanistic models that describe all important
principle of conservation of energy. The following phenomena. This requires much more in-depth
sections describe the historical development of each understanding and longer-term research.
of these tools, together with a brief description of The first and perhaps only exhaustive dimensional
attempts to evaluate the numerous correlations and analysis of the multiphase-flow-in-pipe problem was
models that have been developed. performed by Duns and Ros.5 They identified 13
important variables, resulting in 10 independent
Early Homogeneous Methods. From an international dimensionless groups that might be important in
perspective, most of the wells discovered in the early describing multiphase-flow behavior. After obtaining
fields were capable of flowing at extremely high flow extensive experimental data, they concluded that four
rates. The degree of turbulence in the wells was of these dimensionless groups were important for
sufficiently high for multi phase fluids to exist as predicting flow pattern and degree of slippage at any
homogeneous mixtures. Thus the gas and liquid location in vertical pipe. The degree of slippage
traveled at essentially the same velocity. Pressure- determines the fraction of pipe volume occupied by
gradient equations, such as Eq. 1, were a logical first liquid, a variable they called "liquid holdup." Most
attempt to describe multi phase flow; steady-state subsequent developers of empirical correlations made
single-phase-flow equations were modified by use of Duns and Ros' dimensional analysis.
replacing flow and physical property variables with The first attempt to obtain a large quantity of high-
mixture variables. quality field-scale multi phase-flow data in vertical
pipes was conducted by Hagedorn and Brown. 6
Using several different liquids and three different
dp Pmg sin () fmPm v m 2 Pmvmdvm diameters of pipe, they flowed fluids up a 1,400-ft
..... (1)
dL gc 2dg c gcdL [427-m] -deep vertical test well. At the time, the
--
not flow-pattern dependent, numerous modifications ~ SLUG~" \ \ 0:::
<t
to this correlation have been made to improve / \ \ \ I , ..J
I \ \ 0 1 I E :::>
pressure-drop predictions. ..J z
Increases in exploration and production activity >
(/)
I \ \ I I! : z
c:x:
offshore during the 1960's resulted in the drilling of a A SLUG OR CHURN 'I
large number of wells with large deviations in 0.1 I I 0 0 0
gQ~gl
inclination angle from the vertical. It soon became .. II II II I
obvious that flow-pattern and liquid-holdup prediction ," ~ I
methods developed for vertical flow often failed in
directional wells. The Beggs and Brill7 and the
I jl
O'Ob~.I~----:,L:-Ju.....J....L..~~L......J~=-=-~
I
Mukherjee and Bri1l 8 generalized correlations were
developed to improve pressure-drop predictions in
directional wells and hilly-terrain pipelines.
Concurrent with the development of the early Fig. 2-Taitel et al. flow pattern maps for air and water at
generalized empirical correlations, many researchers atmospheric conditions.
were also investigating specific phenomena related to
multi phase flow, such as gas-bubble rise velocity and
mechanisms for flow-pattern transitions. A group of vertical upward flow in two different pipe diameters
generalized empirical correlations that also made use using the Taitel et at. model. This model clarified the
of early mechanistic models were developed by discrepancy of the bubble/slug flow-pattern transition
Orkiszewski,9 Chierici et al., 10 Aziz et al., II and that existed among various investigators by
Asheim. 12 Most of these studies made extensive use confirming that the existence of bubble flow is
of the work of Griffith and Wallis 13 and Nicklin diameter dependent. Once a reliable flow-pattern
et al. 14 . model is available, improved models can be
developed for describing the fundamental mechanisms
Mechanistic Models. Generalized empirical in each of the specific flow patterns.
correlations simply do not address the complex By far the most important flow patterns for
physical phenomena occurring during multiphase flow multiphase flow in wells are the slug and churn flow
in pipes. Consequently, an impasse has been reached patterns. These intermittent-flow patterns will occur
in which, regardless of the modifications that are during the vast majority of multiphase flow in wells.
made in empirical correlations or the amount of data Comprehensive slug flow models have been
used to develop the correlations, it is unlikely that developed by Fernandez et al., 19 Orell and
design calculations can improve. Application of Rembrand,20 and Taitel. 21
empirical correlations to a broad range of data Bubble flow probably exists over only very short
typically results in errors in the range of ±20% in lengths of pipe in an oil well. The mechanisms of
pressure-drop prediction. bubble flow have been studied extensively by Zuber
Recently, significant improvements have been made and Findlay, 22 Wallis,23 and Harmathy. 24
in our ability to observe, study, and mathematically Perhaps the most difficult flow pattern to study,
model the physical mechanisms governing multi phase- and one that is probably most commonly encountered
flow behavior in pipe. The mechanistic model in gas wells producing water and/or condensate, is
approach incorporates all important variables. the annular flow pattern. The prediction of liquid
Coupled with appropriate laboratory and field data, entrainment and interfacial phenomena is extremely
this approach will yield prediction methods that complex and is the subject of numerous studies
represent significant improvements over generalized currently under way.
empirical correlations. Only two attempts have been made to develop
The first step in developing mechanistic models comprehensive pressure-drop models for wells that
must involve the prediction of flow patterns. Only incorporate or modify existing mechanistic models.
then can improved models be developed to predict, Caetan0 25 investigated vertical multiphase flow in
for each flow pattern, liquid holdup, interfacial shear concentric and fully eccentric annuli. This
stresses, and, consequently, pressure drop. Major configuration is commonly encountered in high-
breakthroughs in modeling flow patterns for wells productivity wells and in wells produced with sucker
have been published by Taitel et al. 15 and Barnea et rod pumps. For these cases, the multiphase mixture
al. 16-18 These comprehensive flow-pattern prediction flows up the annular space between the casing and
models can then be used to generate simple maps that tubing or between the tubing and sucker rods. Hasan
graphically demonstrate the relative importance of and Kabir 26 developed similar models for multiphase
variables. Fig. 2 shows two such maps generated for flow in vertical oil wells. No studies have been
~
Tubinc Size
(ALL OIL)
4 in. I.D.
E
Producint Rate
Oil API Gravity
8000 BbIs./O"
35' API
gt::
Goas Specific Guvity
Aver31! flOWing Temp. 140~ ~
1=
Fig. 4-Severe slug formation in a pipeline/riser-pipe
system.
o
o
o
, limitations of these studies arise because of the !
limited size and accuracy of the data and the limited
range of important variables that exist in available
data banks. In addition, many evaluation studies
compare statistical results of a proposed correlation
with other correlations when applied to the same data
used to develop the proposed correlation. Conclusions
drawn are obviously biased. Impartial evaluation
studies include those by Lawson and Brill, 30 Es~anol
et aI., 31 Gregory et al. ,32 Reinicki and Remer, 3
and Kabir and Hassan. 34 The only legitimate
conclusion that can be drawn from this collection of
evaluation studies is that no best method is currently ,.
available to the engineer. It thus becomes necessary
to have several methods available for comparative
purposes, and one should not be surprised if a Fig. 5-Example of vertical multi phase flow pressure gra-
method that works best for one type of fluid does not dient curves.
work nearly as well for other fluids. Finally, it is
absolutely necessary to recognize that errors in
pressure-drop prediction can easily be caused by calculations. Spacing of gas lift valves and
errors in prediction of fluid physical properties rather determination of optimum injection gas volumes
than inadequate prediction of phenomena such as flow require use of steady-state multiphase-flow pressure-
patterns, slippage, or liquid holdup. loss predictions. The same is true of determining the
type, location, size, and power requirements of
Applications downhole pumps. Analysis of well tests in many
Numerous applications have made use of the pumping wells requires converting casinghead
developments presented in the previous section. pressures to bottomhole pressures for a system in
Essentially every technical paper pertaining to the which gas percolates through a static liquid column in
production of oil and gas in the literature involves the annulus. Detailed descriptions of the application
one of these applications. A thorough discussion of of multi phase flow in artificial lift design can be
all applications is beyond the scope of this paper. found in Refs. 38 and 39.
Some of the more important applications are
described below. An exhaustive literature search on Severe Slugging in Pipeline/Riser-Pipe Systems. A
these topics would fill pages, so only selected unique phenomenon involving vertical multiphase
references are given. flow can occur in riser pipes at offshore platforms
when the inco~ing ~ui~s enter th~ riser pifce ~rom a
Total Production Systems Analysis. The concept of downward-slopIng pipelIne. Schmidt etal. 0 first
using correlations to predict multiphase-flow behavior observed the occurrence of this phenomenon over a
through pipes, well completions, restrictions, and the limited range of gas and liquid flow rates in which
reservoir for analysis of flow behavior in the entire stratified flow would normally occur in the pipeline.
production system has been recognized for more than These flow rates would exist in oversized pipelines or
20 years. 35 ,36 This approach, often called nodal late in the life of an offshore oil field. Severe
analysis, was the SUbJect of another Distinguished slugging is a cyclical process in which the riser pipe
Author Series paper. 7 The objective of nodal periodically fills with liquid, temporarily stops the
analysis is to optimize design calculations for oil and flow of gas up the riser pipe, and creates a slug of
gas wells. This permits evaluation of the interactions liquid in both the riser pipe and the upstream
of individual components in the production system. pipeline. The process of liquid slug generation is
shown in Fig. 4. This is an undesirable phenomenon
Artificial Lift. The design of all artificial lift that can cause problems related to pipe stresses and
procedures involves use of mUltiphase flow in pipe poor separator behavior.