Experimental investigation of two phase flow in horizontal wells: Flow regime assessment and pressure drop analysis

Multiphase flow is fundamental to different fields of engineering and science including petroleum engineering. In oil and gas, flow of multiple phases inside wells is a common phenomenon. In such conditions, petroleum engineers deal with different design and operational difficulties due to complexities involved in flow of multiple phases inside a well. Unlike flow of gas and liquid inside a well, the liquid-liquid flow inside a horizontal well has received rather less attention. This study is aimed at experimentally investigating multiphase flow in a horizontal well by using a 12 m length and 30 mm diameter well made of Plexiglas. Despite the importance of defining pattern transition conditions, this subject has received less attention. In the current study, the boundary condition between different patterns has been characterized by conducting dimensionless analysis and considering the effect of different forces on the creation of such regimes. In addition, it was shown that simplistic models may not represent the pressure drop with a desired accuracy. As a result, a new model is proposed to model pressure drop in each flow regime as a function of flow condition and fluid properties. Also, “third layer” flow regime has been analyzed in more detail. As a result of this study such complex flow regime has been characterized and the velocity of discontinuous phase has been modeled as a function of different parameters such as the size of discontinuous phase, fluid properties, and flow conditions.