Modeling of Oil¬-Water Pipe Flow for All Inclination Angles

Anh Nguyen, Research Assistant, MSc Student


There are major discrepancies on liquid holdup between the available TUFFP unified model (2012) predictions and Flores data (1997) for vertical/inclined oil-water flow.  The predicted flow regimes do not match the actual ones for many cases.  Sharma (2009) developed an oil-water model which was verified for nearly horizontal pipe flow using energy minimization concept.  However, Sharma model does not work for nearly vertical oil-water flow.  Therefore a unified oil-water model for all inclination angles is needed.

The objective of this study is to develop a new oil-water unified model for flow pattern, pressure drop and water fraction prediction, applicable for inclination angles from horizontal to vertical flow.

The new oil-water model can be used for production logging interpretation and well production optimization.  Oil-water model is also the foundation of a three-phase model.

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