Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Numerical analysis study on the application of three-lobed vortex tube in low-production wells

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In order to solve the problem of fluid accumulation in horizontal gas wells and improve the fluid-carrying capacity and recovery efficiency of gas wells, this paper simulates three internal vortex tools using the commercial software ANSYS FLUENT, and analyzes the drainage recovery efficiency of the three vortex structures and the vortex characteristics of the downstream section vortex field. The results show that the axial velocity of the three-bladed spiral tube in the cyclonic field rotates quasi-periodically with the flow field compared with the internal vortex tube and the rifled tube, and the axial velocity, tangential velocity and vortex intensity of the three-bladed vortex tube guided flow field are the highest; meanwhile, the axial velocity, tangential velocity and vortex intensity of the three-bladed spiral tube guided flow field decay the fastest, and the line rifled tube decays the slowest. The liquid phase in the cyclonic field exhibits obvious spiral motion and maintains a long-distance cyclonic flow state under the action of cyclonic flow. The enhancement of the vortex intensity easily leads to the increase of liquid volume fraction and liquid film thickness at the tube wall. Through the analysis of the energy efficiency of the three structures, it is found that the three-leaf spiral tube is more suitable for the initial phase of drainage transport, while the internal vortex tube is more favorable for the stable phase of transport. The study of the gas-liquid swirl flow of the three swirl tools demonstrated the feasibility of the internal swirl tool for application in horizontal wells. It can provide theoretical guidance and practical basis for effective liquid filling with internal vortex tools in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

A :

Pipeline cross-sectional area

b :

Blade width

C :

Constant

π :

Constant

d :

Drop diameter

D x :

Pipe diameter

e k :

Specific internal energy

g :

Gravitational acceleration

I :

Tensor

L x :

Length of cyclone device

n :

Spiral lead

P :

Fluid total pressure

P*:

The dimensionless total pressure

P k :

Pressure

q k :

Volume heat source

r :

Distance from the droplet to the central axis

R :

Pipeline radius

R e :

Reynolds number

S w :

Swirl number

t :

Time

T k :

Tensor stress

u k :

Fluid velocity

u * :

Near-wall friction velocity

u r.θ :

Axial velocity on polar axis

u x :

Fluid axial velocity

\(\overline{u_{i}^{\prime}u_{j}^{\prime}}\) :

Turbulent kinetic energy per unit mass

U :

Axial velocity

v r.θ :

Radial velocity

w :

Tangential turbulent fluctuation velocity

W :

Tangential velocity

x k :

Phase shift

Y + :

First layer grid height

ρ k :

The density

ρ g :

Gas density

ρ l :

Liquid density

∇:

Vector operator

τ :

Shearing stress

τ t :

Time variable

μ :

Dynamic viscosity

α :

Helix angle

η :

Energy efficiency of the system

\(\partial(\rho_{k}\overline{u_{i}^{\prime}u_{j}^{\prime}})/\partial t\) :

Time varying rate of Reynolds stress

\(\partial(\rho_{k}\overline{u_{i}^{\prime}u_{j}^{\prime}})/\partial x_{k}\) :

Convection term

D i,j :

Diffusion term

P i,j :

Stress generation term

G i,j :

Buoyancy generation term

Φ i,j :

Pressure-strain redistribution term

ε i,j :

Discrete term

F i,j :

Rotation system generation term

S i,j :

Self-defined source term

References

  1. C. A. M. Veeken and S. P. C. Belfroid, New perspective on gas-well liquid loading and unloading, SPE Prod. Oper., 26(4) (2011) 343–356.

    Google Scholar 

  2. A. Ajani et al., Foam flow in vertical gas wells under liquid loading: Critical velocity and pressure drop prediction, Int. J. Multiph. Flow, 87 (2016) 1339–1351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Y. D. Nallaparaju, Prediction of liquid loading in gas wells, Proc. - SPE Annu. Tech. Conf. Exhib., San Antonio, USA (2012) 131–138.

  4. C. Zhou et al., Optimization of methods for liquid loading prediction in deep condensate gas wells, J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 146 (2016) 71–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. P. J. Waltrich et al., Experimental investigation on the prediction of liquid loading initiation in gas wells using a long vertical tube, J. Nat. Gas Sci. Eng., 26 (2015) 1515–1529.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Y. Liu et al., Experimental and modeling studies on the prediction of liquid loading onset in gas wells, J. Nat. Gas Sci. Eng., 57 (2018) 349–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. A. J. Ali, S. L. Scott and B. Fehn, Investigation of new tool to unload liquids from stripper-gas wells, Proc. - SPE Annu. Tech. Conf. Exhib., Denver, USA, 4(1) (2003) 795–806.

    Google Scholar 

  8. G. L. Covatch and J. Morrison, Stripper well consortium offers opportunities and technologies to the stripper well industry, SPE Eastern Regional Meeting, Morgantown, USA (2005) 257–260.

  9. T. Matsubayashi et al., Effects of swirler shape on swirling annular flow in a gas-liquid separator, Nucl. Eng. Des., 249 (2012) 63–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. S. Xiaoxia, M. Wenjun and Y. Yuan, Design method of a vertical screw conveyor based on taylor-couette-poiseuille stable helical vortex, Adv. Mech. Eng., 9(7) (2017) 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. L. Gomez, R. Mohan and O. Shoham, Swirling gas-liquid two-phase flow - experiment and modeling part I: swirling flow field, J. Fluids Eng. Trans. ASME, 126(6) (2004) 935–942.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. R. Cazan and C. K. Aidun, Experimental investigation of the swirling flow and the helical vortices induced by a twisted tape inside a circular pipe, Phys. Fluids, 21 (3) (2009).

  13. R. Bose, Unloading using auger tool and foam and experimental identification of liquid loading of low rate natural gas wells, Master’s Thesis, Texas A&M Univ. (2007).

  14. M. Surendra, G. Falcone and C. Teodoriu, Investigation of swirl flows applied to the oil and gas industry, SPE Projects, Facilities & Construction, 4(1) (2009) 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. G. Falcone, G. F. H. Lao and S. M. Richardson, ANUMET: A novel wet gas flowmeter, SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Denver, USA (2003) 12–42.

  16. H. Li and Y. Tomita, An experimental study of swirling flow pneumatic conveying system in a vertical pipeline, J. Fluids Eng. Trans. ASME, 120(1) (1998) 200–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. H. Li and Y. Tomita, Particle velocity and concentration characteristics in a horizontal dilute swirling flow pneumatic conveying, Powder Technol., 107(1–2) (2000) 144–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. X. Huang and J. Dong, An investigation of swirl flow field in in pneumatic conveying duct, J. Aerosp Power, 8(3) (1993) 275–278, 310.

    Google Scholar 

  19. M. Pashtrapanska et al., Turbulence measurements in a swirling pipe flow, Exp. Fluids, 41(5) (2006) 813–827.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. S. Fokeer, I. Lowndes and S. Kingman, An experimental investigation of pneumatic swirl flow induced by a three lobed helical pipe, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow, 30(2) (2009) 369–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. J. Pruvost et al., Particle image velocimetry investigation of the flow-field of a 3D turbulent annular swirling decaying flow induced by means of a tangential inlet, Exp. Fluids, 29(3) (2000) 291–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. H. Liang et al., Gas-liquid two-phase flow characteristics of the jet vortex drainage gas production tool based on computational fluid dynamics, Asia-Pacific J. Chem. Eng., 15(4) (2020) 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. D. Wu et al., Numerical simulation and structural optimization of vortex tool for liquid discharge in gas well, China Pet. Mach., 8 (2014) 111–115.

    Google Scholar 

  24. S. Fokeer, I. S. Lowndes and D. M. Hargreaves, Numerical modelling of swirl flow induced by a three-lobed helical pipe, Chem. Eng. Process. Process Intensif., 49(5) (2010) 536–546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. A. F. Najafi et al., Boundary layer solution for the turbulent swirling decay flow through a fixed pipe: SBR at the inlet, Int. J. Eng. Sci., 43(1–2) (2005) 107–120.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. J. J. Derksen, Simulations of confined turbulent vortex flow, Comput. Fluids, 34(3) (2005) 301–318.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  27. M. P. Escudier, J. Bornstein and N. Zehnder, Observations and LDA measurements of confined turbulent vortex flow, J. Fluid Mech., 98(1) (1980) 49–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. X. H. Sun, Experimental research on the hydraulic characteristics and particle suspended mechanics in spiral pipe flow with horizontal axis, Ph.D. Dissertation, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, China (2000) 7–53.

    Google Scholar 

  29. C. Zhou et al., Dynamic analysis for two-phase vortex flow and optimization of vortex tools to unload liquid from gas wells, J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 173(8) (2019) 965–974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. A. Andreini et al., Development of a turbulent liquid flux model for Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase flow simulations, Int. J. Multiph. Flow, 81 (2016) 88–103.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  31. J. W. Suh et al., Development of numerical Eulerian-Eulerian models for simulating multiphase pumps, J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 162 (2018) 588–601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. F. M. Erdal et al., Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of bubble carry-under in gas-liquid cylindrical cyclone separators, SPE Prod. Facil., 15(4) (2000) 217–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. T. A. Ganat and M. Hrairi, Gas-liquid two-phase upward flow through a vertical pipe: influence of pressure drop on the measurement of fluid flow rate, Energies, 11 (11) (2018).

  34. J. Van’t Westende, Droplets in annular-dispersed gas-liquid pipe-flows, Doctoral Thesis, TU Delft (2007).

  35. A. A. Gavrilov, A. A. Dekterev and A. V. Sentyabov, Modeling of swirling flows with coherent structures using the unsteady Reynolds stress transport model, Fluid Dyn., 50(4) (2015) 471–482.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  36. J. W. Zhou, Research on the mechanism and performance of pneumatic conveying of coal particles by cyclone flow, Ph.D. Dissertation, China University of Mining and Technology, Jiangsu, China (2017) 95–100.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Supported by Scientific Research Starting Project of SWPU (No. 2019QHZ006) and the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No.2019YFC0312 305-02).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China

    Ruyi Gou, Chenchen Kang & Xun Luo

Authors
  1. Ruyi Gou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Chenchen Kang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xun Luo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ruyi Gou.

Additional information

Ruyi Gou is a Ph.D. of School of mechanical and electrical engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, China. He graduated from Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University in 2016. He mainly engaged in downhole power drilling tool research and development, downhole tool mechanics and physical method of oil production technology research.

Chenchen Kang is a graduate student of School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, China. His research interests include computational fluid dynamics and structural design and optimization of vortex tools for low-yield wells.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gou, R., Kang, C. & Luo, X. Numerical analysis study on the application of three-lobed vortex tube in low-production wells. J Mech Sci Technol 37, 2969–2980 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-023-0523-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-023-0523-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation