Numerical Solutions of the Classical and Modified Buckley-Leverett Equations Applied to Two-Phase Fluid Flow

Climate change is a reality. The burning of fossil fuels from oil, natural gas and coal is responsible for much of the pollution and the increase in the planet’s average temperature, which has raised discussions on the subject, given the emergencies related to climate. An energy transition to clean and renewable sources is necessary and urgent, but it will not be quick. In this sense, increasing the efficiency of oil extraction from existing sources is crucial, to avoid waste and the drilling of new wells. The purpose of this work was to add diffusive and dispersive terms to the Buckley-Leverett equation in order to incorporate extra phenomena in the temporal evolution between the water-oil and oil-water transitions in the pipeline. For this, the modified Buckley-Leverett equation was discretized via essentially weighted non-oscillatory schemes, coupled with a three-stage Runge-Kutta and a fourth-order centered finite difference methods. Then, computational simulations were performed and the results showed that new features emerge in the transitions, when compared to classical simulations. For instance, the dispersive term inhibits the diffusive term, adding oscillations, which indicates that the absorption of the fluid by the porous medium occurs in a non-homogeneous manner. Therefore, based on research such as this, decisions can be made regarding the replacement of the porous medium or the insertion of new components to delay the replacement.

Pressure transient characteristics of non-uniform conductivity fractured wells in viscoelasticity polymer flooding based on oil-water two-phase flow

Polymer flooding in fractured wells has been extensively applied in oilfields to enhance oil recovery.In contrast to water,polymer solution exhibits non-Newtonian and nonlinear behavior such as effects of shear thinning and shear thickening,polymer convection,diffusion,adsorption retention,inaccessible pore volume and reduced effective permeability.Meanwhile,the flux density and fracture conductivity along the hydraulic fracture are generally non-uniform due to the effects of pressure distribution,formation damage,and proppant breakage.In this paper,we present an oil-water two-phase flow model that captures these complex non-Newtonian and nonlinear behavior,and non-uniform fracture characteristics in fractured polymer flooding.The hydraulic fracture is firstly divided into two parts:high-conductivity fracture near the wellbore and low-conductivity fracture in the far-wellbore section.A hybrid grid system,including perpendicular bisection(PEBI)and Cartesian grid,is applied to discrete the partial differential flow equations,and the local grid refinement method is applied in the near-wellbore region to accurately calculate the pressure distribution and shear rate of polymer solution.The combination of polymer behavior characterizations and numerical flow simulations are applied,resulting in the calculation for the distribution of water saturation,polymer concentration and reservoir pressure.Compared with the polymer flooding well with uniform fracture conductivity,this non-uniform fracture conductivity model exhibits the larger pressure difference,and the shorter bilinear flow period due to the decrease of fracture flow ability in the far-wellbore section.The field case of the fall-off test demonstrates that the proposed method characterizes fracture characteristics more accurately,and yields fracture half-lengths that better match engineering reality,enabling a quantitative segmented characterization of the near-wellbore section with high fracture conductivity and the far-wellbore section with low fracture conductivity.The novelty of this paper is the analysis of pressure performances caused by the fracture dynamics and polymer rheology,as well as an analysis method that derives formation and fracture parameters based on the pressure and its derivative curves.

A two-phase type-curve method with multiscale fluid transport mechanisms in hydraulically fractured shale reservoirs

The quantitative understanding of hydraulic fracture(HF)properties guides accurate production forecasts and reserve estimation.Type curve is a powerful technique to characterize HF and reservoir properties from flowback and long-term production data.However,two-phase flow of water and hydrocarbon after an HF stimulation together with the complex transport mechanisms in shale nanopores exacerbate the nonlinearity of the transport equation,causing errors in type-curve analysis.Accordingly,we propose a new two-phase type-curve method to estimate HF properties,such as HF volume and permeability of fracture,through the analysis of flowback data of multi-fractured shale wells.The proposed type curve is based on a semianalytical solution that couples the two-phase flow from the matrix with the flow in HF by incorporating matrix influx,slippage effect,stress dependence,and the spatial variation of fluid properties in inorganic and organic pores.For the first time,multiple fluid transport mechanisms are considered into two-phase type-curve analysis for shale reservoirs.We analyze the flowback data from a multi-fractured horizontal well in a shale gas reservoir to verify the field application of the proposed method.The results show that the fracture properties calculated by the type-curve method are in good agreement with the long-time production data.

Simulation and Analysis on the Two-Phase Flow Fields in a Rotating-Stream-Tray Absorber by Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

The flow field of gas and liquid in a φ150mm rotating-stream-tray (RST) scrubber is simulated by using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method. The sismulation is based on the two-equation RNG κ-ε turbulence model, Eulerian multiphase model, and a real-shape 3D model with a huge number of meshes. The simulation results include detailed information about velocity, pressure, volume fraction and so on. Some features of the flow field are obtained: liquid is atomized in a thin annular zone; a high velocity air zone prevents water drops at the bottom from flying towards the wall; the pressure varies sharply at the end of blades and so on. The results will be helpful for structure optimization and engineering design.

Three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Two-phase Flow in a Structured Packing Column

Characterizing the complex two-phase hydrodynamics in structured packed columns requires a power- ful modeling tool. The traditional two-dimensional model exhibits limitations when one attempts to model the de- tailed two-phase flow inside the columns. The present paper presents a three-dimensional computational fluid dy- namics （CFD） model to simulate the two-phase flow in a representative unit of the column. The unit consists of an CFD calculations on column packed with Flexipak 1Y were implemented within the volume of fluid （VOF） mathe- matical framework. The CFD model was validated by comparing the calculated thickness of liquid film with the available experimental data. Special attention was given to quantitative analysis of the effects of gravity on the hy- drodynamics. Fluctuations in the liquid mass flow rate and the calculated pressure drop loss were found to be quali- tatively in agreement with the experimental observations.

Application and prospect of the fluid cooling system of solar arrays for probing the Sun

The Solar Close Observations and Proximity Experiments(SCOPE)mission,which has been proposed by the Yunnan Observatories,Chinese Academy of Sciences,aiming to operate at a distance of 5 to 10 solar radii from the Sun,plans to complete the in situ detection of the solar eruption process and observation of the magnetic field structure response.The solar flux received by the satellite ranges from 10^(3) to 10^(6) Wm^(-2),which poses challenges for thermal management of the solar arrays.In this work,the solar array cooling system of the Parker Solar Probe is discussed,the developments of the fluid loop technique are reviewed,and a research plan for a next-generation solar array cooling system is proposed.This paper provides a valuable reference for novel thermal control systems in spacecraft for solar observation.

Fluid−Structure Interaction of Two-Phase Flow Passing Through 90° Pipe Bend Under Slug Pattern Conditions

Numerical simulations of evolution characteristics of slug flow across a 90°pipe bend have been carried out to study the fluid−structure interaction response induced by internal slug flow.The two-phase flow patterns and turbulence were modelled by using the volume of fluid(VOF)model and the Realizable k−εturbulence model respectively.Firstly,validation of the CFD model was carried out and the desirable results were obtained.The different flow patterns and the time-average mean void fraction was coincident with the reported experimental data.Simulations of different cases of slug flow have been carried out to show the effects of superficial gas and liquid velocity on the evolution characteristics of slug flow.Then,a one-way coupled fluid-structure interaction framework was established to investigate the slug flow interaction with a 90°pipe bend under various superficial liquid and gas velocities.It was found that the maximum total deformation and equivalent stress increased with the increasing superficial gas velocity,while decreased with the increasing superficial liquid velocity.In addition,the total deformation and equivalent stress has obvious periodic fluctuation.Furthermore,the distribution position of maximum deformation and stress was related to the evolution of slug flow.With the increasing superficial gas velocity,the maximum total deformation was mainly located at the 90°pipe bend.But as the superficial liquid velocity increases,the maximum total deformation was mainly located in the horizontal pipe section.Consequently,the slug flow with higher superficial gas velocity will induce more serious cyclical impact on the 90°pipe bend.

Modelling of a Two-Phase Thermosyphon Loop for Passive Air-Conditioning of a House in Hot and Dry Climate Countries

The two-phase thermosyphon loop is an efficient solution for space cooling. This paper presents the simulation results of numerical studies on the heat transfer and thermal performance of a two-phase thermosiphon loop for passive air-conditioning of a house. The fluid considered in this study is methanol, which is compatible with copper and is environmentally friendly. These numerical results show that the temperature at the evaporator wall drops from 23°C to 13°C and increases at the condenser. The solar flux density has a strong influence on the condenser temperature. The mass flow rates and masses at the evaporator and condenser increase with temperature. The variation of evaporating and condensing temperature affects the performance of the system. For a constant evaporating and condensing temperature of 2°C and 29°C, the COP is 0.77 and 0.84 respectively. With these results, the use of the two-phase thermosyphon loop in air conditioning is possible to obtain a thermal comfort of the occupants acceptable by the standards but with a large exchange surface of the evaporator.

SECOND-ORDER MOMENT MODEL FOR DENSE TWO-PHASE TURBULENT FLOW OF BINGHAM FLUID WITH PARTICLES

The USM-θ model of Bingham fluid for dense two-phase turbulent flow was developed, which combines the second-order moment model for two-phase turbulence with the particle kinetic theory for the inter-particle collision. In this model, phases interaction and the extra term of Bingham fluid yield stress are taken into account. An algorithm for USM-θ model in dense two-phase flow was proposed, in which the influence of particle volume fraction is accounted for. This model was used to simulate turbulent flow of Bingham fluid single-phase and dense liquid-particle two-phase in pipe. It is shown USM-θ model has better prediction result than the five-equation model, in which the particle-particle collision is modeled by the particle kinetic theory, while the turbulence of both phase is simulated by the two-equation turbulence model. The USM-θ model was then used to simulate the dense two-phase turbulent up flow of Bingham fluid with particles. With the increasing of the yield stress, the velocities of Bingham and particle decrease near the pipe centre. Comparing the two-phase flow of Bingham-particle with that of liquid-particle, it is found the source term of yield stress has significant effect on flow.

MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF TWO-PHASE FLUID NONLINEAR FLOW IN LOW-PERMEABILITY POROUS MEDIA WITH APPLICATIONS

A mathematical model of two-phase fluid nonlinear flow in the direction of normal of ellipse through low-permeability porous media was established according to a nonlinear flow law expressed in a continuous function with three parameters, a mass conservation law and a concept of turbulent ellipses. A solution to the model was obtained by using a finite difference method and an extrapolation method. Formulas of calculating development index not only before but also after water breaks through an oil well in the condition of two-phase fluid nonlinear flow in the media were derived. An example was discussed. Water saturation distribution was presented. The moving law of drainage front was found. Laws of change of pressure difference with time were recognized. Results show that there is much difference of water saturation distribution between nonlinear flow and linear flow; that drainage front by water moves faster, water breaks through sooner and the index gets worse because of the nonlinear flow; and that dimensionless pressure difference gets larger at the same dimensionless time and difficulty of oil development becomes bigger by the nonlinear flow. Thus, it is necessary that influence of nonlinear flow on development indexes of the oil fields be taken into account. The results provide water-flooding development of the oilfields with scientific basis.

Numerical simulation of two-phase flow field in underwater sealing device based on dynamic mesh

In order to speed underwater launch of minor-caliber weapons,a sealing device can be set in front of underwater muzzle to separate water,preventing the muzzle from water immersion.By establishing and simplifying the model of underwater weapon sealing device and unstructured mesh computing domain model based on computational fluid dynamics（CFD）,dynamic mesh and user defined function（UDF）,the N-S equation is solved and the numerical analysis and calculation of the complex two-phase flow inside the sealing device are carried out.The results show that the gas discharged from the sealing device is conducive to the formation of the projectile supercavity.When the projectile is launched at 5munder water,the shock wave before and after the projectile has impact on the box body up to 100 MPa,therefore the sealing device must be strong enough.The research results have the vital significance to the design of underwater weapon sealing device and the formation of the projectile supercavitation.

Numerical Investigation on Dynamic Response Characteristics of Fluid-Structure Interaction of Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow in Horizontal Pipe

Fluid-structure interaction(FSI)of gas-liquid two-phase fow in the horizontal pipe is investigated numerically in the present study.The volume of fluid model and standard k-e turbulence model are integrated to simulate the typical gas-liquid two-phase fow patterns.First,validation of the numerical model is conducted and the typical fow patterns are consistent with the Baker chart.Then,the FSI framework is established to investigate the dynamic responses of the interaction between the horizontal pipe and gas-liquid two-phase fow.The results show that the dynamic response under stratified fow condition is relatively flat and the maximum pipe deformation and equivalent stress are 1.8 mm and 7.5 MPa respectively.Meanwhile,the dynamic responses induced by slug fow,wave fow and annular fow show obvious periodic fuctuations.Furthermore,the dynamic response characteristics under slug flow condition are maximum;the maximum pipe deformation and equivalent stress can reach 4mm and 17.5 MPa,respectively.The principal direction of total deformation is different under various flow patterns.Therefore,the periodic equivalent stress will form the cyclic impact on the pipe wall and affect the fatigue life of the horizontal pipe.The present study may serve as a reference for FSI simulation under gas-liquid two-phase transport conditions.

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Analysis of the Influence of Asymmetric Pressure Conditions on the Splitting of a Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow at a T-Junction

Dedicated experiments and numerical simulations have been conducted to investigate the splitting characteristics of a gas-liquid two phase flow at a T junction.The experiments were carried out for different gas-liquid velocities.The flow rates in the two branches were measured accurately to determine how the two considered phases distribute in the two outlets.The experimental results have shown that when the two outlet pressures are asymmetric,the two-phase flow always tends to flow into the outlet which has a lower pressure.As the inlet liquid velocity increases,however,the two-phase flow gradually tends to split evenly.Compared with the experiment results,the pressure difference between the two outlets can be determined more accurately by means of numerical simulation.The trends of experimental results and simulations are in very good agreement.

MICROGRAVITY EXPERIMENTS OF TWO-PHASE FLOW PATTERNS ABOARD MIR SPACE STATION

A first experimental study on two-phase how patterns at a long-term, steady microgravity condition was conducted on board the Russian Space Station 'MIR' in August 1999. Carbogal and air are used as the liquid and the gas phase, respectively. Bubble, slug, slug-annular transitional, and annular hows are observed. A new region of annular how with lower liquid superficial velocity is discovered, and the region of the slug-annular transitional flow is wider than that observed by experiments on board the parabolic aircraft. The main patterns are bubble, slug-annular transitional and annular flows based on the experiments on board MIR space station. Some influences on the two-phase how patterns in the present experiments are discussed.

Prediction of Flowing Bottomhole Pressures for Two-Phase Coalbed Methane Wells

A method is proposed to predict the flowing bottomhole pressures （FBHPs） for two-phase coalbed methane （CBM） wells. The mathematical models for both gas column pressure and two-phase fluid column pressure were developed based on the well liquid flow equation. FBHPs during the production were predicted by considering the effect of entrained liquid on gravitational gradients. Comparison of calculated BHPs by Cullender-Smith and proposed method was also studied. The results show that the proposed algorithm gives the desired accuracy of calculating BHPs in the low- productivity and low-pressure CBM wells. FBHP is resulted from the combined action of wellhead pressure, gas column pressure and fluid column pressure. Variation of kinetic energy term, compressibility and friction factors with depth increments and liquid holdup with velocity should be considered to simulate the real BHPs adequately. BHP is a function of depth of each column segment. The small errors of less than 1.5% between the calculated and measured values are obtained with each segment within 25 m. Adjusting BHPs can effectively increase production pressure drop, which is beneficial to CBM desorption and enhances reservoir productivity. The increment of pressure drop from 5.37 MPa2 to 8.66 MPa2 leads to an increase of CBM production from 3270 m3/d to 6700 m3/d and is attributed to a decrease in BHP from 2.25 MPa to 1.33 MPa.

Experimental and numerical simulation of lignite chemical looping gasification with phosphogypsum as oxygen carrier in a fluidized bed

Phosphogypsum(PG)is a solid waste produced in the wet process of producing phosphoric acid.Lignite is a kind of promising chemical raw material.However,the high sulfur of lignite limits the utilization of lignite as a resource.Based on fluidized bed experiments,the optimal reaction conditions for the production syngas by lignite chemical looping gasification(CLG)with PG as oxygen carrier were studied.The study found that the optimal reaction temperature should not exceed 1123 K;the mole ratio of water vapor to lignite should be about 0.2;the mole ratio of PG oxygen carrier to lignite should be about 0.6.Meanwhile,commercial software Comsol was used to establish a fuel reaction kinetics model.Through computational fluid dynamics(CFD)numerical simulation,the process of reaction in fluidized bed were well captured.The model was based on a two-fluid model and coupled mass transfer,heat transfer and chemical reactions.This study showed that the fluidized bed presents a flow structure in which gas and solid coexist.There was a high temperature zone in the middle and lower parts of the fluidized bed.It could be seen from the results of the flow field simulated that the fluidized bed was beneficial to the progress of the gasification reaction.

Reconstructing bubble profiles from gas-liquid two-phase flow data using agglomerative hierarchical clustering method

The knowledge of bubble profiles in gas-liquid two-phase flows is crucial for analyzing the kinetic processes such as heat and mass transfer, and this knowledge is contained in field data obtained by surface-resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. To obtain this information, an efficient bubble profile reconstruction method based on an improved agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) algorithm is proposed in this paper. The reconstruction method is featured by the implementations of a binary space division preprocessing, which aims to reduce the computational complexity, an adaptive linkage criterion, which guarantees the applicability of the AHC algorithm when dealing with datasets involving either non-uniform or distorted grids, and a stepwise execution strategy, which enables the separation of attached bubbles. To illustrate and verify this method, it was applied to dealing with 3 datasets, 2 of them with pre-specified spherical bubbles and the other obtained by a surface-resolved CFD simulation. Application results indicate that the proposed method is effective even when the data include some non-uniform and distortion.

CFD studies of scraper built in SPA clarifying tank based on mixture solid-liquid two-phase flow model

In the industrial process of producing the strong phosphoric acid(SPA),clarification of the solution is essential to the ultimate product.However,the large viscosity of sediment and the induced interface interaction result in difficulties when the SPA is clarified.CFD numerical methodology was applied to simulate internal flow field and performance of the low speed scraper based on Mixture solidliquid two-phase flow model.Sediment deposition was generated by loading solid particles at the bottom of clarifying vessel.The moving mesh and RNG k-εmodel were used to simulate the rotational turbulent flow in clarifying tank.Variables studied,amongst others,were the scraper rotation speed and the mounting height,which could affect the solid suspension height.Features of flow field and solid volume fraction distribution in computational domain were presented and analyzed.The numerical reports of the scraper torque and velocities of inlet and outlet filed were obtained.It seems the torque value of rotatio-nal axis and particle suspending height augment with an increasing rotating speed.Meanwhile,a high revolving speed is good for the deposition discharge.The particle fraction distribution in meridional surface and horizontal surface at fixed rotation speed were analyzed to determine the corresponding optimal installation height.The simulating results reflect the flow field is marginally stirred by the scraper and proper working parameters are obtained,in which case the comprehensive properties of the scraper and the clarifying tank are superior.

Heat transfer model of two-phase flow across tube bundle in submerged combustion vaporizer

In order to optimize the design of the submerged combustion vaporizer(SCV), an experimental apparatus was set up to investigate the heat transfer character outside the tube bundle in SCV. Several experiments were conducted using water and CO_2 as the heat transfer media in the tubes, respectively. The results indicated that hot air flux, the initial liquid level height and the tube pitch ratio had great influence on the heat transfer coefficient outside the tube bundle(ho). Finally, the air flux associated factor β and height associated factor γ were introduced to propose a new hocorrelation. After verified by experiments using cold water, high pressure CO_2 and liquid N_2 as heat transfer media, respectively, it was found that the biggest deviation between the predicted and the experimental values was less than 25%.

Multi-scale complexity entropy causality plane: An intrinsic measure for indicating two-phase flow structures

We extend the complexity entropy causality plane（CECP） to propose a multi-scale complexity entropy causality plane（MS-CECP） and further use the proposed method to discriminate the deterministic characteristics of different oil-in-water flows. We first take several typical time series for example to investigate the characteristic of the MS-CECP and find that the MS-CECP not only describes the continuous loss of dynamical structure with the increase of scale, but also reflects the determinacy of the system. Then we calculate the MS-CECP for the conductance fluctuating signals measured from oil–water two-phase flow loop test facility. The results indicate that the MS-CECP could be an intrinsic measure for indicating oil-in-water two-phase flow structures.