Experimental investigation of viscous oil-water flows in pipeline

High resolution visualization studies, using high speed camera capture, were conducted to study flow patterns of oil-water two phase flows, that were further developed into flow regime maps. Visualization of the oil-water flow regimes reveals different layers of stratification for separated flow regimes with the existence of a near stationary oil layer on the top for heavy oil(300 cP). While light oil(30 cP)-water flow patterns were comparable to flow pattern maps found in literature, heavy oil-water flow patterns showed considerable deviations. The flow regime transitions have been found to occur at lower superficial velocities for heavy oil, than for light oil-water flows. Pressure drop characteristics of the viscous mixture flows were also investigated and compared with existing experimental results in literature. The studies reveal that phase inversion point occurs at higher phase fractions for heavy oils as opposed to light oils.