Investigating multiphase flow across a 90 degrees elbow bend flowline monitoring pressure drop, velocity profile and flow regime

Multiphase slug flow is going to be analysed while focusing on how pressure is lost and monitoring the velocity profiles. The problem involved in a multiphase flow is by far more complex than that which could be observed in a single phase flow. The fluid coming from the wellbore and onto the first part of the separator is conventionally a two phase flow of liquid/gas (air and silicone oil in this study). Using large diameter pipe and industrial based fluids, focus would be laid on flow directive change and also putting into consideration what type of flow to be dealt with. Why this results to a more complex problem is because of the simultaneous flow of both liquid and vapor (water and condensate or oil). The basic method of estimating pressure drop for multiphase flow is by using an equation. Furthermore, complications occur when the fluid is flowing to the surface and due to pressure change, vapor to liquid fraction also change, velocity changes and also fluid properties changes. With recent advancements that have been done on CFD codes, a whole new set of equations for multiphase and a complete fluid dynamic set can be solved numerically. A worthy CFD code to be used in conducting this analysis is the Star-CCM+. Unstructured mesh (three dimensional) could be used for the elbow sections and the pipe using known methods to calculate the energy, mass and momentum equations. At the pipe’s inlet boundary upstream of the 90 degrees bend is where the phase velocities and mixture composition is defined. For solving complex mixture problems, one model is often used due to its accuracy and that is к-ε turbulence model having standard wall functions. Assumption for gravitational acceleration on upward flow is taken as 9.81 m/s2. Keywords: Multiphase, flow, elbow, pressure drop, slug