Measurements of Film Dynamics In Two-Phase Model In a Vertical Pipe

Abstract

The experimental work done in this thesis has been conducted at the laboratory of department of petroleum geosciences and engineering, in a vertical loop by running two-phase flow, water and air. The measurements were taken out from two different positions in the pipe. Different flow rates from water and gas were also tested. The primary purpose was to investigate how the film thickness varies with time, under different flow conditions. Another objective was wave frequency analysis to obtain a perspective on the wave behaviour.

The measurements from the film thickness fluctuations gave some agreements with previous analysis. The data shows how the mean film thickness increases with the liquid flow rates but the gas flow rates give more variation in the structure and the movement of the film. Besides, it was observed that above gas velocity around 14.5 m/s and water velocity about 0.0026 m/s, the liquid film thickness is almost constant. In the liquid film fluctuations figures, the time-traces curves were almost evenly.

Furthermore, the frequency analysis has shown some attractive observations how the shape and structures of the waves vary with flow regime. The dominant waves or in other words the highest peaks have been more appearing in position 1 near the water inlet. In other hands, the smaller waves were more appearing when the gas velocity increases. Some of the statistical characteristics of film thickness were also studied such as standard deviations. The data obtained illustrate that the standard deviations increase proportional with the mean film thickness. Also the maximum standard deviation in relation to the mean thickness has been 35%. This was when the gas velocity is 5.14 m/s and water velocity is around 0.013 m/s. That confirms, in less dynamic region films are less wavy, but in higher turbulent section films are wavier.