Evaluation of frictional pressure drop correlations for air-water and air-oil two-phase flow in pipeline-riser system

Accurate prediction of the frictional pressure drop is important for the design and operation of subsea oil and gas transporting system considering the length of the pipeline. The applicability of the correlations to pipeline-riser flow needs evaluation since the flow condition in pipeline-riser is quite different from the original data where they were derived from. In the present study, a comprehensive evaluation of 24prevailing correlation in predicting frictional pressure drop is carried out based on experimentally measured data of air-water and air-oil two-phase flows in pipeline-riser. Experiments are performed in a system having different configuration of pipeline-riser with the inclination of the downcomer varied from-2°to-5°to investigated the effect of the elbow on the frictional pressure drop in the riser. The inlet gas velocity ranges from 0.03 to 6.2 m/s, and liquid velocity varies from 0.02 to 1.3 m/s. A total of885 experimental data points including 782 on air-water flows and 103 on air-oil flows are obtained and used to access the prediction ability of the correlations. Comparison of the predicted results with the measured data indicate that a majority of the investigated correlations under-predict the pressure drop on severe slugging. The result of this study highlights the requirement of new method considering the effect of pipe layout on the frictional pressure drop.

A Statistical Evaluation of the Frictional Pressure Losses Correlations for Slurry Flow

Hydraulic fracturing has increased immensely in recent years. An accurate prediction of frictional pressure losses of fracturing slurries is crucial for successful treatment and avoiding premature screen-out or even treatment failure. Scarce data and lack of theoretical basis of slurry flow, especially in coiled tubing, has led to very limited number of correlations that are available to predict slurry frictional pressure losses. Yet, the accuracy of the available correlations is still questionable. The current paper presents a statistical comparative analysis of the available frictional pressure losses correlations for slurry flow in straight and coiled tubing employing the recently introduced math modeling technique giving weight for the models known as A1C （Akaike information criterion）. With the help of AIC, the authors evaluated the available correlations to examine their accuracy. The results show that none of the available correlations can accurately predict friction pressure losses of slurries. The correlations show some reasonable accuracy within a very limited data range. However, they failed outside this range indicative of their poor applicability. AIC shows how much information is lost when using these correlations which can lead to erroneous results, and even job failure. This fact keeps the gates widely opened for more in-depth experimental, analytical, and theoretical analysis for better understanding of flow behavior with fracturing slurries aiming at developing a more realistic correlation to predict their frictional pressure losses. This paper represents the authors＇ first step toward developing such correlation, with the application of information theory and AIC.

Experimental investigation on boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of R245fa in a horizontal micro-fin tube

An experimental investigation on the boiling heat transfer and frictional pressure drop of R245fa in a 7 mm horizontal micro-fin tube was performed.The results show that in terms of flow boiling heat transfer characteristics,boiling heat transfer coefficient(HTC)increases with mass velocity of R245fa,while it decreases with the increment of saturation temperature and heat flux.With the increase of vapor quality,HTC has a maximum and the corresponding vapor quality is about 0.4,which varies with the operating conditions.When vapor quality is larger than the transition point,HTC can be promoted more remarkably at higher mass velocity or lower saturation temperature.Among the four selected correlations,KANDLIKAR correlation matches with 91.6%of experimental data within the deviation range of±25%,and the absolute mean deviation is 11.2%.Also,in terms of frictional pressure drop characteristics of flow boiling,the results of this study show that frictional pressure drop increases with mass velocity and heat flux of R245fa,while it decreases with the increment of saturation temperature.MULLER-STEINHAGEN-HECK correlation shows the best prediction accuracy for frictional pressure drop among the four widely used correlations.It covers 84.1%of experimental data within the deviation range of±20%,and the absolute mean deviation is 10.1%.

Effect of rolling friction on wall pressure,discharge velocity and outflow of granular material from a flat-bottomed bin

The present paper provides both experimental and DEM analyses of the filling and discharge of pea grains from a 3D flat-bottomed bin. In the DEM model, the fixed mean values of the experimentally determined single particle data, such as the particle density, Young＇s modulus, Poisson＇s ratio as well as the sliding and rolling friction coefficients were incorporated to analyse their effects on the macroscale indicators, such as the wall pressure, discharge velocities and material outflow parameters. The effect of rolling friction was studied based on the experimentally measured single particle rolling friction coefficient. This analysis is aimed at the quantitative prediction of flow parameters as related to the identification of material parameters.

Investigation on MoS_2 and Graphite Coatings and Their Effects on the Tribological Properties of the Radial Spherical Plain Bearings

With constant enlargement of the application areas of the spherical plain bearings,higher quality lubrication of the bearings is required.To solve the lubricating problems of spherical plain bearings under high temperature,high vacuum,high speed,heavy loads and strong oxidation conditions,it is urgent for us to develop more excellent self-lubricating technologies.In this paper,the bonded solid lubricant coatings,which use inorganic phosphate as the binder,the mixture of MoS2 and graphite with two different weight proportions as the solid lubricant,are prepared by spraying under three different spray gun pressures.The bonding strength tests on the coatings show that the best spraying pressure is 0.2 MPa and the better mixing proportion of MoS2 to Graphite is 3：1.Then for the radial spherical plain bearings with steel/steel friction pair,after the coatings are made on the inner ring outer surfaces,the friction coefficient,the wear loss and the friction temperature of the bearings under four oscillating frequencies are investigated by a self-made tribo-tester.The test results,SEM of the worn morphologies and EDS of worn areas show that tribological properties of the bearing are obviously improved by the bonded solid lubricant coatings.When sprayed under the spray gun pressure of 0.2 MPa,the bearings have better anti-friction and anti-wear properties than those sprayed under 0.1 MPa and 0.3 MPa.Further as proved from the XPS analysis,between the coating with 3：1 mixing ratio of MoS2 to Graphite and the coating with 1：1 ratio,the former has less oxidation occurred on the surface and therefore has better tribological characteristics than the latter.This paper provides a reference to developing a new product of the radial spherical plain bearings with high bonding strength,oxidation resistance and abrasion resistance.

Water slip flow in superhydrophobic microtubes within laminar flow region

The fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces and the studies on water flow characteristics therein are of great significance to many industrial areas as well as to science and technology development. Experiments were car- ried out to investigate slip characteristics of water flowing in circular superhydrophobic microtubes within lam- inar flow region. The superhydrophobic microtubes of stainless steel were fabricated with chemical etching- fluorination treatment. An experimental setup was designed to measure the pressure drop as function of water flow rate. For comparison, superhydrophilic tubes were also tested. Poiseuille number Po was found to be smaller for the superhydrophobic microtubes than that for superhydrophilic ones. The pressure drop reduc- tion ranges from 8% to 31%. It decreases with increasing Reynolds number when Re 〈 900, owing to the transition from Cassie state to Wenze] state. However, it is almost unchanged with further increasing Re after Re 〉 900. The slip length in superhydrophobic microtubes also exhibits a Reynolds number dependence similarly to the pressure drop reduction. The relation between slip length and Darcy friction factor is theoretically analyzed with consideration of surface roughness effect, which was testified with the experimental results.

Flow resistance characteristics of water in narrow annulus during heat exchange

Considering the special resistance characteristics of fluids flowing through ducts with small gaps, experiments are performed to investigate the resistance characteristics of single-phase water, which is forced to flow through ver tical annuli. The gap sizes are 0.9, 1.4 and 2.4mm, respectively. The experiments are conducted under condition of 1atm. The water in the annuli is heated by high temperature water reversely flowing through the inner tube and the outer annulus. The results show that the flow pattern begin to change from laminar to turbulent before Reynolds number approaches 2000, the flow resistance in annulus has little relations with the temperature difference and ways of being heated, but mainly depends on the ratio of mass flux to the width of annulus.

ERRATUM TO “CHARACTERISTICS OF PRESSURE DROP AND CORRELATION OF FRICTION FACTORS FOR SINGLE-PHASE FLOW IN ROLLING HORIZONTAL PIPE”

This is the erratum to the article [zhang Jin-hong, Yan Chang-qi, Gao Pu-zhen, Journal of Hydrodynamics, 2009, 21(5)]. The Fig.5 is corrected.

Numerical analysis of frictional behavior of dense gas-solid systems

Dense gas-solid flows show significantly higher stresses compared with dilute flows, mainly attributable to particle-particle friction in dense particle flows. Several models developed have considered particle-particle friction; however, they generally underestimate its effect in dense regions of the gas-solid system, leading to unrealistic predictions in their flow patterns. Recently, several attempts have been made to formulate such flows and the impact of particle-particle friction on predicting flow patterns based on modified frictional viscosity models by including effects of bulk density changes on frictional pressure of the solid phase. The solid-wall boundary is also expected to have considerable effect on friction because particulate phases generally slip over the solid surface that directly affects particle-particle frictional forces. Polydispersity of the solid phase also leads to higher friction between particles as more particles have sustained contact in polydispersed systems. Their effects were investi- gated by performing CFD simulations of particle settlement to calculate the slope angle of resting material of non-cohesive particles as they settle on a solid surface. This slope angle is directly affected by frictional forces and may be a reasonably good measure of frictional forces between particles. The calculated slope angle, as a measure of frictional forces inside the system are compared with experimental values of this slope angle as well as simulation results from the literature.