Title: CFD modelling of hydrate slurry flow in a pipeline based on Euler-Euler approach

Authors: Abdallah S. Berrouk; Peng Jiang; Ferozkhan Safiyullah; Mehaboob Basha

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering; Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, The Petroleum Institute, P.O. Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, The Petroleum Institute, P.O. Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, The Petroleum Institute, P.O. Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, Penrith NSW 2751, Sydney, Australia ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, The Petroleum Institute, P.O. Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Research Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: The presence and agglomeration of hydrates particle in oil and gas transportation pipeline can pose a major threat for the flow assurance. Understanding the hydrate-containing flow characteristics is of essence to efficiently manage and transport hydrate slurries. In this work, a 3D computational fluid dynamics model of hydrates slurry flow in pipeline was built using Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase approach. Reynolds averaged numerical simulation based on the Reynolds stress model was used to capture the turbulence. User defined functions of hydrates particle size and shear viscosity models were developed and integrated into the CFD model. The model predictions on pressure gradients at different inlet velocities and hydrates volume fractions were compared with the experimental data. Hydrates deposition characteristics were investigated and the hydrates deposition bed heights were determined for low inlet velocities. This study should provide valuable insight into hydrate-laden flow in pipelines that might help redesign them for better flow assurance.

Keywords: flow assurance; hydrate slurry flow; computational fluid dynamics; Euler-Euler approach; hydrate deposition.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2020.107246

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2020 Vol.20 No.3, pp.156 - 168

Received: 16 May 2018
Accepted: 08 May 2019
Published online: 11 May 2020 *

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