Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Numerical simulation of the influence of severe slugging on offshore production systems
Submission Author:
Wayne Gabriel Nóbrega Firme , PB
Co-Authors:
Wayne Gabriel Nóbrega Firme, Tony Herbert Freire de Andrade, Átyla Matheus de Araújo Costa, Paulo Vítor Silva Ramos, Phillipe Augusto Sales
Presenter: Phillipe Augusto Sales
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-2024
Abstract
The regime's severe slugging flow is a problem commonly encountered in the oil and gas industry, due to the associated production instability. This phenomenon in particular is characterized by cycles of large fluid production followed by periods of low or even zero fluid production, which represents a great challenge to the assurance of multiphase flow. One of the main conditions for the occurrence of the severe slugging phenomenon is the presence of depressions in the production pipelines, which, in turn, are usually found in flowline-riser systems in offshore fields. In this sense, the work focuses on evaluating, through computational tools, an oil and gas production system composed of a flowline-riser to identify the occurrence of severe slugging, as well as the operational verification of the use of choking valves at the top of the riser as an alternative to stabilize fluid flow. Since the use of computational simulation tools is essentially important for determining the technical and economic viability of oil and gas production in oil fields, as they help in the identification and remediation of problems related to the assurance of multiphase flow, the present study uses the commercial one-dimensional multiphase flow simulator, Artificial Lift Flow Assurance Simulation - ALFAsim. This software makes it possible to model and simulate oil production layouts of composite systems, for example, well-flowline-riser, and therefore predict the occurrence of severe slugging. The graphical analysis of parameters such as volumetric oil flow, holdup, flow pattern, pressure differential, absolute pressure and elevation, displays profiles that correspond to the identification of the severe slugging phenomenon. In addition, to mitigate the occurrence of severe slugging, it appears that the use of choking valves at the top of the riser with an opening of 92.5% is effective in stabilizing the flow of fluids and, consequently, guarantees operational safety through of the change in flow pattern in the riser.
Keywords
ALFAsim, Well-Flowline-Riser System, Slug Flow, multiphase flow, Flow Assurance.
