Flow Pattern and Pressure Fluctuation of Severe Slugging in Pipeline-riser System

During the exploitation of offshore oil and gas,it is easy to form severe slugging which can cause great harm in the riser connecting wellheads and offshore platform preprocessing system.The flow pattern and pressure fluctuation of severe slugging were studied in an experimental simulation system with inner diameter of 0.051 m.It is found that severe slugging can be divided into three severe slugging regimes：regime I at low gas and liquid flow rates with large pressure fluctuation,intermittent flow of liquid and gas in the riser,and apparent cutoff of liquid phase,regime II at high gas flow rate with non-periodic fluctuation and discontinuous liquid outflow and no gas cutoff,regime III at high liquid flow rate with degenerative pressure fluctuation in form of relatively stable bubbly or plug flow.The results indicate that severe slugging still occurs when the declination angle of pipeline is 0,and there are mainly two kinds of regimes：regime I and regime II.As the angle increases,the formation ranges of regime I and regime III increase slightly while that of regime II is not affected.With the increase of gas superficial velocity and liquid superficial velocity,the pressure fluctuation at the bottom of riser increases initially and then decreases.The maximum value of pressure fluctuation occurs at the transition boundary of regimes I and II.

Development of a Novel Parallel-spool Pilot Operated High-pressure Solenoid Valve with High Flow Rate and High Speed

High-pressure solenoid valve with high flow rate and high speed is a key component in an underwater driving system.However,traditional single spool pilot operated valve cannot meet the demands of both high flow rate and high speed simultaneously.A new structure for a high pressure solenoid valve is needed to meet the demand of the underwater driving system.A novel parallel-spool pilot operated high-pressure solenoid valve is proposed to overcome the drawback of the current single spool design.Mathematical models of the opening process and flow rate of the valve are established.Opening response time of the valve is subdivided into 4 parts to analyze the properties of the opening response.Corresponding formulas to solve 4 parts of the response time are derived.Key factors that influence the opening response time are analyzed.According to the mathematical model of the valve,a simulation of the opening process is carried out by MATLAB.Parameters are chosen based on theoretical analysis to design the test prototype of the new type of valve.Opening response time of the designed valve is tested by verifying response of the current in the coil and displacement of the main valve spool.The experimental results are in agreement with the simulated results,therefore the validity of the theoretical analysis is verified.Experimental opening response time of the valve is 48.3 ms at working pressure of 10 MPa.The flow capacity test shows that the largest effective area is 126 mm2 and the largest air flow rate is 2320 L/s.According to the result of the load driving test,the valve can meet the demands of the driving system.The proposed valve with parallel spools provides a new method for the design of a high-pressure valve with fast response and large flow rate.

Lumped Parameter Mass Flow Rate and Pressure Control Characteristics Model for High-Speed Pneumatic PWM on/off Valve

Aiming at solving the problem of strong coupling characteristic of the key parameters of high-speed pneumatic pulse width modulation( PWM) on / off valve, a general lumped parameter mathematical model based on the valves time periods was well developed. With this model,the mass flow rate and dynamic pressure characteristics of constant volumes controlled by high-speed pneumatic PWM on /off valves was well described. A variable flow rate coefficient model was proposed to substitute for the constant one used in most of the prior works to investigate PWM on /off valves' dynamical pressure response, and a formula for disclosing the inherent relationship among the PWM command signal,static mass flow rate,and sonic conductance of the valve was newly derived.Finally,an extensive set of analytical experimental comparisons were implemented to verify the validity of the proposed mathematica model. With the proposed model, PWM on /off valves' characteristics,such as mass flow rate,step pressure response of the valve control system,mean pressure and ripple amplitude,not only in the linear range,but also in the nonlinear range can be wel predicted; Good agreement between measured and calculated results was obtained,which proved that the model is helpful for designing a control strategy in a closed loop control system.

Analysis of Gas Flow Rate and Pressure Loss of Medical Mask Differential Pressure Tester

The objective of this study is to find a suitable method to overcome the pressure loss problem in the gas pipe during the gas exchange detection of medical masks.Based on the European Standards EN 14683,the parameters of a medical mask differential pressure tester were selected,subsequently two schemes of gas pipe layouts were designed,including four kinds of pipe diameter which are 4,5,6.5,and 8mm respectively.Lastly,the models of each scheme were established and imported into Fluent,and the relevant parameters were set for simulation.After data analysis,the results showed that among the four different pipe diameters,the pressure loss of 8mm diameter of the pipe was lower in both the schemes,additionally the pressure loss of the second scheme(the gas pipe was short and smooth)was lower under the same pipe diameter.At the flow rate of v=8L/min,the pressure loss from the inlet to the measurement point is less than 200Pa,and the estimated measurement error is less than 1.5%.In conclusion,shortening the length of the pipe,and increasing the diameter of the pipe can reduce the gas pressure loss,subsequently improve the measurement accuracy of the medical mask differential pressure tester.

Prediction of Boiler Drum Pressure and Steam Flow Rate Using Artificial Neural Network

Numerical simulation of complex systems and components by computers is a fundamental phase of any modern engineering activity. The traditional methods of simulation typically entail long, iterative processes which lead to large simulation times, often exceeding transient real time. Artificial neural networks （ANNs） may be advantageous in this context, the main advantage being the speed of computation, the capability of generalizing from the few examples, robustness to noisy and partially incomplete data and the capability of performing empirical input-output mapping without complete knowledge of underlying physics. In this paper, the simulation of steam generator is considered as an example to show the potentialities of this tool. The data required for training and testing the ANN is taken from the steam generator at Abott Power Plant, Champaign （USA）. The total number of samples is 9600 which are taken at a sampling time of three seconds. The performance of boiler （drum pressure, steam flow rate） has been verified and tested using ANN, under the changes in fuel flow rate, air flow rate and load disturbance. Using ANN, input-output mapping is done and it is observed that ANN allows a good reproduction of non-linear behaviors of inputs and outputs.

A study of hydrate plug formation in a subsea natural gas pipeline using a novel high-pressure flow loop

The natural gas pipeline from Platform QKI8-1 in the southwest of Bohai Bay to the onshore processing facility is a subsea wet gas pipeline exposed to high pressure and low temperature for a long distance. Blockages in the pipeline occur occasionally. To maintain the natural gas flow in the pipeline, we proposed a method for analyzing blockages and ascribed them to the hydrate formation and agglomeration. A new high-pressure flow loop was developed to investigate hydrate plug formation and hydrate particle size, using a mixture of diesel oil, water, and natural gas as experimental fluids. The influences of pressure and initial flow rate were also studied. Experimental results indicated that when the flow rate was below 850 kg/h, gas hydrates would form and then plug the pipeline, even at a low water content （10%） of a water/oil emulsion. Furthermore, some practical suggestions were made for daily management of the subsea pipeline.

Experimental study on pressure fluctuation characteristics of slug flow in horizontal curved tubes

In order to study the pressure characteristics of slug flow in horizontal curved tubes,two kinds of curved tubes with central angle 45° and 90° respectively are studied,of which are with 0. 5m circumference and 26 mm inner diameter are used. When the superficial liquid velocity or the superficial gas velocity is constant,the pressure fluctuations and the probability distribution of the average velocity of slug flow are clear for all of the five experimental conditions. The results of experiment show that the pressure characteristics of slug flow in curved tubes have periodic fluctuations. With the rise of central angle,the period of pressure fluctuation is more obvious. The system pressure of the slug flow increases with the increasing of superficial liquid/gas velocity. Meanwhile,the probability distribution of pressure signal shows regularity,such as unimodal,bimodal or multimodal.

Unsteadiness control of laminar junction flows on pressure fluctuations

Smoke-wire flow visualization is conducted carefully in a laminar junction to explore the physical behavior of laminar junction flows. The two-dimensional(2 D)velocity fields in the 30?plane of a laminar junction flow are acquired by a time-resolved particle image velocimetry(PIV) system at a frame rate of 1 kHz, based on which the unsteady fluctuating pressure fields can be calculated by the multi-path integration method proposed in the literature(GAND, F., DECK, S., BRUNET,V., and SAGAUT, P. Flow dynamics past a simplified wing body junction. Physics of Fluids, 22(11), 115111(2010)).A novel control strategy is utilized to attenuate the unsteadiness of the horseshoe vortices of the laminar junction flow, and the consequent effect on pressure fields is analyzed.

Generation and propagation characteristics of fluctuation pressure in hydraulic fracturing with unstable fluid-injection

Different from the stable injection mode of conventional hydraulic fracturing,unstable fluid-injection can bring significant dynamic effect by using variable injection flow rate,which is beneficial to improve the fracturing effect.Obviously,the propagation process of fracturing fluid along the pipe string is crucial.In this paper,the fluid transient dynamics model in the pipe string was established,considering the boundary conditions of variable injection flow rate and reservoir seepage,and the unsteady friction was also taken into account.The above model was solved by characteristics and finite difference method respectively.Furthermore,the influences of geological parameters and fluid injection schemes on fluctuating pressure were also analyzed.The results show that unstable fluid-injection can cause noticeable fluctuation of fracturing fluid in the pipe string.Simultaneously,there is attenuation during the propagation of pressure fluctuation.The variation frequency of unstable fluid-injection and well depth have significant effects on pressure fluctuation amplitude at the bottom of the well.This research is conducive to understanding the mechanism of unstable fluid-injection hydraulic fracturing and providing guidance for the design of fluid-injection scheme.

Flow-rate Characteristics Measurement of Regulators Based on the Pressure Response in an Isothermal Tank

Regulators are important components in pneumatic system, and their flow-rate characteristics are the key parameters for designers. According to the correlatively international standard and national standard of China, which describe the flow-rate characteristics measurement method of pneumatic regulators, the pressure and the flow are measured point by point, and then the flow-rate characteristics curve is plotted point to point. This method has some disadvantages, such as equipment complexity, much air consumption, and low efficiency. To settle the problems presented above, this paper puts forward a new high efficient and energy saving flow-rate characteristics measurement method of regulators, which is based on the pressure response when charging and discharging to an isothermal tank without any flow meters. The measurement principle, the system and the steps are introduced. And the tracking differentiator is used for the data processing of the pressure difference. Two typical kinds of regulators were experimentally investigated, and their flow-rate characteristics curves were obtained with the new and the conventional method, respectively. Comparatively, it＇s proved that this new method is feasible because it is not only able to meet the demand of the measurement precision, but also to save energy and improve efficiency. Compared to the conventional method, the new method takes only about 1/10 amount of time and consumes about only 1/30 amount of air. Hopefully it will be able to serve as an international standard of flow-rate characteristics measurement method of regulators.

Flow-Accelerated Corrosion in Pipe Wall Downstream of Orifice for Water and Air-Water Bubble Flows

An orifice is used widely as a flow meter or a contraction device in pipeline systems in hydro-power plants, thermal power plants, and chemical plants because of its simple construction, high reliability, and low cost. However, it is well known that flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) occurs on the pipe wall downstream of the orifice. Some of the authors have examined FAC through experimental and numerical analyses and have reported that one of the major governing parameters of FAC for single-phase water flow is the pressure fluctuation p’ on the pipe wall, and also that pipe wall thinning rate TR can be estimated by p’. In addition, they have presented the effects of the ori-fice geometry on p’ or TR, and have described a method for suppressing p’ or TR. In the present study, FAC for a two-phase air-water bubble flow is examined and compared with the single-phase water flow experimentally. Further, it is shown that because p’ is also considered a governing parameter of FAC for a two-phase air-water bubble flow, TR can be estimated using p’. It is also indicated that, by using a downstream pipe with a smaller diameter than that of the upstream pipe, p’ or TR can be suppressed.

Acute Effects of Tolvaptan on Renal Hemodynamics in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease —A Randomized, Cross-Over, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of Renal Plasma Flow and Glomerular Filtration Rate

Background: Previous studies have shown that reduced renal plasma flow (RPF) may play a role in progression of renal disease in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Tolvaptan, a vasopressin 2 antagonist, reduces growth of total kidney volume and slows the decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in ADPKD. The purpose of this randomized, cross-over, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was to investigate if acute tolvaptan treatment increases RPF in ADPKD patients. Methods: Eighteen ADPKD patients (chronic kidney disease stages I-III) were investigated twice (min. 10 days apart) after acute treatment with either tolvaptan 60 mg or placebo. Two hours after treatment RPF and GFR were estimated by Technetium-99m diethylenetriamine penta-acetic acid (99-mTc-DTPA) renography. During the examination day, central and brachial blood pressures (BP) were measured using Mobil-O-Graph? PWA. We also measured plasma concentrations of vasopressin (p-AVP), renin (PRC), angiotensin II (p-AngII) and aldosterone (p-Aldo), urine excretion of aquaporin 2 (u-AQP2), urine output (OU), urine osmolality (u-Osm) and fractional excretion of sodium (FENa). Results: 99-mTc-DTPA renography showed a similar RPF (673 ± 262 ml/min after tolvaptan vs. 650 ± 209 ml/min after placebo, p = 0.571) and GFR (78 ± 26 ml/min after tolvaptan vs. 79 ± 21 ml/min after placebo p = 0.774) after tolvaptan and placebo treatment. P-AVP and UO increased and u-Osm decreased after tolvaptan and remained unchanged during placebo. Systolic BP tended to decrease during renography during tolvaptan. Very small or insignificant changes were seen in PRC, p-AngII and p-Aldo. Conclusions: Acute tolvaptan treatment did not change renal hemodynamics in ADPKD.

Unsteady Turbulent Simulation and Pressure Fluctuation Analysis for Centrifugal Pumps

The pressure fluctuation in the flow passage of both impeller and casing is addressed on design condition. The initial conditions for the unsteady turbulent simulation are resulted from the steady calculations, and the three dimensional unsteady turbulent simulation concerning the rotor-stator interaction is executed by a Navier-Stoke solver embedded with k -ε turbulence model and with appropriate moving interface boundary conditions. Detecting points are distributed in the flow passage in different radial and circumferential positions to capture the static pressure fluctuation character for one cycle of the impeller. The time-domain spectrums show that the static pressure curves are periodic and have five peaks and five valleys. With the radius increasing, the pressure fluctuation peak-to-peak values in the impeller are increasing, and reach the maximum value on the interface. In the casing flow passage, those values are about 7% of local static pressure except some ones near the tongue. The values become decreasingly in the diffuser pipe. The frequency spectrums transformed by fast Fourier transform （FFT） show that the dominant frequency is approximate with the blade passing frequency, and the pressure fluctuations in impeller passage have high frequency content while those in casing ones have no such information.

Investigation on Reduction of Pressure Fluctuation for a Double-Suction Centrifugal Pump

Double-suction centrifugal pumps have been applied extensively in many areas,and the significance of pressure fluctuations inside these pumps with large power is becoming increasingly important.In this study,a double-suction centrifugal pump with a high-demand for vibration and noise was redesigned by increasing the flow uniformity at the impeller discharge,implemented by combinations of more than two parameters.First,increasing the number of the impeller blades was intended to enhance the bounding effect that the blades imposed on the fluid.Subsequently,increasing the radial gap between the impeller and volute was applied to reduce the rotor-stator interaction.Finally,the staggered arrangement was optimized to weaken the efficacy of the interference superposition.Based on numerical simulation,the steady and unsteady characteristics of the pump models were calculated.From the fluctuation analysis in the frequency domain,the dimensionless pressure fluctuation amplitude at the blade passing frequency and its harmonics,located on the monitoring points in the redesigned pumps(both with larger radial gap),are reduced a lot.Further,in the volute of the model with new impellers staggered at 12°,the average value for the dimensionless pressure fluctuation amplitude decreases to 6%of that in prototype pump.The dimensionless rootmean-square pressure contour on the mid-span of the impeller tends to be more uniform in the redesigned models(both with larger radial gap);similarly,the pressure contour on the mid-section of the volute presents good uniformity in these models,which in turn demonstrating a reduction in the pressure fluctuation intensity.The results reveal the mechanism of pressure fluctuation reduction in a double-suction centrifugal pump,and the results of this study could provide a reference for pressure fluctuation reduction and vibration performance reinforcement of doublesuction centrifugal pumps and other pumps.

Air pressure law of a reservoir constructed in karst sinkholes

Karst sinkholes with natural negative landform provide favorable conditions for the pumped storage reservoir construction for less excavation work.However,the construction of the reservoir would plug the natural karst channels for water and air,which would cause remarkable air pressure in karst channels when the groundwater level fluctuates.A large laboratory simulation test was carried out to study the air pressure variation of a reservoir built on the karst sinkhole.The air pressure in the karst channel and inside the model was monitored during the groundwater rising and falling process.Result showed that the variation of air pressure in the karst channel and the surrounding rock exhibited a high degree of similarity.The air pressure increased rapidly at the initial stage of water level rising,followed by a slight decrease,then the air pressure increased sharply when the water level approached the top of the karst cave.The initial peak of air pressure and the final peak of air pressure were defined,and both air pressure peaks were linearly increasing with the water level rising rate.The negative air pressure was also analyzed during the drainage process,which was linearly correlated with the water level falling rate.The causes of air pressure variation in karst channels of a pumped storage reservoir built on the karst sinkhole were discussed.The initial rapid increase,then slight decrease and final sudden increase of air pressure were controlled by the combined effects of air compression in karst channel and air seepage into the surrounding rock.For the drainage process,the instant negative air pressure and gradual recovering of air pressure were controlled by the combined effects of negative air pressure induced by water level falling and air supply from surrounding rock.This work could provide valuable reference for the reservoir construction in karst area.

Pressure Drop Fluctuations in Periodically Fluctuating Pipe Flow

Experiments were conducted to study characteristics of flow when flow is fluctuating.The experimental results showed a phase difference between the flow rate and the pressure drop fluctuations.This phase difference between the fluctuating flow rate and pressure drop was analyzed for laminar flow.Analysis showed that the phase difference changes with the period of the flow fluctuation, the pipe radius, the density and the dynamic viscosity of the liquid.Fluctuating pipe flow was then numerically simulated.Results of the numerical simulation were compared with theoretical values and experimental results.It was shown that, when the flow rate fluctuates with time as a sine wave, the pressure drop fluctuates with the same periodicity, and there is a phase difference between them.

Air Entrainment and Pressure Fields over Stepped Spillway in Skimming Flow Regime

This paper deals with some aspects of the air entrainment process along the chute of spillway and study of pressure fluctuations. The experimental study has been carried out using stepped spillway model located in the campus of Government College of Engineering, Amravati (India). It is observed that air concentration is increasing with discharge as well as with number of step. Air concentration is increasing along the length of spillway. It is also observed that the bottom mean air concentration increases with step height in the upstream reach of stepped spillway, which is prone to cavitation. The pressure profiles exhibit a wavy pattern down the stepped chute and pressure on each step increases with ratio of critical depth to step height (yc/h).

Modeling and Control of Time-pressure Dispensing for Semiconductor Manufacturing

To improve the consistency of the adhesive amount dispensed by the time-pressure dispenser for semiconductor manufacturing, a non-Newtonian fluid flow rate model is developed to represent and estimate the adhesive amount dispensed in each cycle. Taking account of gas compressibility, an intelligent model-based control strategy is proposed to compensate the deviation of adhesive amount dispensed from the desired one. Both simulations and experiments show that the dispensing consistency is greatly improved by using the model-based control strategy developed in this paper.

Experimental analysis of pressure characteristics of catalyst powder flowing down a cyclone dipleg

An experiment was carried out for investigating pressure behavior of catalyst powders, with a Sauter mean diameter of 63.6 μm, flowing downward in a cyclone dipleg with 150 mm inner diameter and 9000 mm high. Time mean pressure and time series of pressure fluctua- tions were measured at different axial positions in the dipleg with particle mass fluxes ranging from 50.0 to 385.0 kg m-2s t. The experimental results showed that the time mean pressure in the dipleg increased progres- sively from the top section to the bottom section. The experimental phenomena displayed that the fluidization patterns in the dipleg can be divided into two types on the whole, namely the dilute-dense coexisting falling flow and the dense conveying flow along the dipleg. In the dilute- dense coexisting falling flow, the dilute phase region was composed of a length of swirling flow below the inlet of dipleg and a dilute falling flow above the dense bed level. With increasing particle mass flux, the dilute-dense coex- isting falling flow was gradually transformed to be the dense conveying flow, and the exit pressure of the dipleg increased considerably. The pressure fluctuations were closely related to the flnidization patterns inside the dipleg. In the dilute-dense coexisting falling flow, the pressure fluctuations in the dilute flow region originated from par- ticle clusters, propagating downward as a pressure wave; however, the pressure fluctuations in the dense flow region originated from rising gas bubbles, propagating upward. When the dense conveying flow was formed in the dipleg,the pressure fluctuations originated mainly from instability of the feed and the compressed gas, propagating down- ward. The standard deviation of the pressure fluctuations indicated that the intensity of pressure fluctuations first increased and then decreased with increasing particle flux.

Analysis of flow response to fluctuation of rotational speed in a radial impeller

By discretizing the convection terms with AUSM+-up scheme in the rotating coordinate system,a finite volume analysis code based on multi-block structured grids was developed independently so as to realize the numerical solving of internal flow fields of turbomachineries.Taking an unshrouded radial impeller with the working fluid of water vapour as the research object,the flow response to the fluctuation of rotational speed was calculated.By comparing the surface pressure profiles and velocity contours calculated by the code and commercial software respectively,the accuracy of flow solver was verified.The analysis of flow response data indicates that,as the working condition shifts closer towards the surge boundary,the response of flow parameters such as mass flow and aerodynamic torque will be more nonsynchronous with the fluctuation of rotational speed,and also the influence of density variation on mass flow variation will be smaller.Moreover,the transient variation region of working condition performance will deviate farther away from the steady performance curve as the working condition approaches the surge boundary.Compared to the working conditions with small mass flows,the distribution characteristics of pressure difference load on the blade surface vary little under large mass flow conditions.The reduction of fluctuation amplitude of rotational speed exerts no influence on abating the hysteresis of flow response.