variavel0=<b>Eugênio S. Rosa</b> - erosa@fem.unicamp.br FEM/DE UNICAMP
<b>Rigoberto E.M. Morales</b> - rmorales@fem.unicamp.br FEM/DE UNICAMP
<b>Abstract.</b> The improvement of the reservoir management and the production control by the petroleum industry require the use of reliable and accurate on-line multiphase flow meters. Ideally, they should be able to measure low flow rates in single well applications. However, most of the devices under development nowadays are large enough to fit in a well bore and to measure high flow rates. To over come this lack this paper presents results of a program focusing on the use of Venturi meters for gas-liquid flow metering in bottom well applications. The meter is intended to operate with bubbly flows with low gas content, the volumetric void fraction bellow 10%. The project combines laboratory data and CFD simulation in order to provide a design and operational tool for gas-liquid metering purposes. To accomplish with that one measured the radial distribution of the void fraction at the inlet, throat and exit of the Venturi and the static pressure at six positions along the Venturi axis. The experiments have been performed with air, water at near atmospheric pressure, over a broad range of gas and liquid flow rates. This coupled approach uses on-line measurements of void fraction and pressure drop as input data and checking values for a numerical implementation of a Two-Fluid Model. The good agreement that existed between the data and the numerical results, in a range of void fraction characterizing two-phase bubbly flows, shows that such a coupled solution is a promising tool to measure gasliquid flows in well bore installations.
<b>Keywords.</b> petroleum, two-phase, measuring, bubble, Venturi.