What is it about?
This study investigates how the shape and length of the pipe leading to a special type of flowmeter, called a Venturi multiphase flowmeter, affects the accuracy of measuring mixtures of oil, gas, and water in the pipe. Two key design features are tested: the horizontal blind tee depth (HBD), a section of pipe used to mix the fluids before measurement; and the vertical inlet length (VEL), the length of pipe leading to the Venturi meter. Using computer simulations and laboratory experiments, the researchers investigate how these features affect: the uniformity of fluid mixing (known as flow uniformity); the accuracy of measuring liquid properties (such as salinity); and the reliability of the Venturi meter's pressure and phase fraction readings.
Featured Image
Photo by JJ Ying on Unsplash
Why is it important?
In oil and gas production, understanding the flow of oil, gas, and water through pipelines is crucial for improving efficiency, ensuring safety, and controlling costs. Poor pipeline design can lead to uneven mixing, which can cause inaccurate readings and poor decision-making. This research can help engineers optimize flow meter settings, obtaining more reliable data without separating the fluids.
Perspectives
This research provides practical guidance for designing more efficient flow meter systems in the oil and gas industry: it shows that small changes in pipeline design can have a significant impact on measurement accuracy. It also encourages the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for testing before design and construction. These findings can be applied to other industries that handle mixed fluids, such as chemical processing or wastewater treatment. It also supports the move toward compact, real-time monitoring systems that are more efficient and easier to install in complex industrial environments.
Professor Jian-Jun SHU
Nanyang Technological University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Influence of design parameters of upstream Venturi pipeline on multiphase flow measurement, Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics, February 2023, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/19942060.2023.2182831.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
