Pressure gradient correlation for oil–water separated flow in horizontal pipes

In this work, a simple pressure gradient correlation for horizontal oil–water separated flow (stratified and dual continuous flows) was developed based on the work of Angeli and Hewitt [3]. Zigrang and Sylvester [28] friction factor equation was modified to work for two phase oil–water flow. The pressure gradient correlation was validated extensively against 11 pressure gradient data sources. To our knowledge, this is the first pressure gradient database that published for oil–water flow which includes wide range of operational conditions, fluid properties, pipe diameters and materials. The predictions agreed reasonable well with the experimental results. The accuracy of the correlation was also tested against the two-fluid model. The percentage errors and standard deviation for the predicted and measured results were presented. The new proposed correlation predicts the pressure gradient with higher accuracy than the two-fluid model.

► Pressure gradient correlation was developed for horizontal oil-water separated flow. ► The correlation was tested against 11 experimental data set and two-fluid model. ► Very good agreement was obtained between the predictions and experimental results. ► The correlation prediction is more accurate than the two-fluid model.