Measurement of velocity profile in stratified flow in annular-section PIPE using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)

Abstract

The frequent occurrence of two-phase flows in pipes has motivated big interest in this area of research in the last decades. The particular case of gas-liquid flow is usually found in oil industry, where a considerable number of applications involve natural gas and oil flows. Most of the information found refer to pipe flows. In the oil and gas field, two-phase flow data in annular sections are scarce, despite its common ocurrence in wells equipped with electrical submersible pumps, wells with gravitational separators of gas and in directional wells, which use sand screen. More sofisticated, precise and robust methods are in development, to predict the transition of flow patterns and the head loss in two-phase flows, which can be used to make numerical codes, applied to oil industry. For such, detailed and reliable data, on the flow characteristics, like velocity profiles, are needed. A particle image velocimeter (PIV), recently acquired by NETeF, will allow this data collection. Experiments with air-water will take place in the Laboratório de Escoamentos Multifásicos (Industrial Multiphase Flows Laboratory) of NETef, which has the needed facilities ready to work.