ANSYS method to the analysis of flow characteristics for the elbow of an oil pipeline

Abstract

            The flow of oil-water mixture in a pipeline can take place in a variety of patterns. It’s appear during the transportation of oil and in wellbore. The fraction of water in the output stream will increase as the producing life of a well increases. Being able to estimate the pressure loss in such systems is critical for properly designing the conveying system. In this study the ANSYS fluent 2021 R2, the VOF method the RNG, k- model were used to simulate three dimensional turbulent flow of the oil-water flow in elbow pipe of 55.57mm diameter and straight pipes at its two side of 800mm length with three water volume fractions 25%, 50%, 75%. The flow pattern and the distribution of the velocity and the influence of the elbow angle on them were studied. Also prediction of the pressure drop and the effect of water volume fraction and the influence of elbow angles on it. The result show that the pressure drop increase by increasing the water volume fraction, and the largest pressure drop happened at 90^o elbow angle while the lowest at 45^o.