To prevent or minimize problems associated with water coning in horizontal oil producers, inflow control devices (ICDs) are installed along the wellbore to better equalize the toe-to-heel flux. Nozzle-based ICDs are popular because they are easy to model accurately, virtually viscosity independent, and easy to install at the wellsite with many settings. Nozzles can be installed either in the wall of the base-pipe (radial orientation) or in the annulus between the base-pipe and housing (axial orientation). The advantages of the former are smaller maximum-running outer diameter (OD) and no need for a leak-tight, pressure-rated housing. One disadvantage is the high exit velocity that raises concern of erosion or erosion-corrosion of the base-pipe.

To overcome this disadvantage, a new nozzle has been developed with a novel geometry that reduces the exit velocity approximately tenfold compared with a conventional nozzle for the same pressure drop and flow rate. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to first fine tune the design to meet strict erosion-corrosion prevention requirements on the wall shear-stress downstream of the nozzle for both production and (acid) injection directions, and then to develop flow-performance curves for four different nozzle “sizes” that vary in their choking ability, thereby allowing many different settings per joint at the wellsite.

Full-scale prototype manufacturing and flow-loop testing were then performed to validate the CFD flow-performance predictions and to demonstrate mechanical integrity and erosion resistance for high-rate production and injection. The results, as presented herein, demonstrate a robust and commercially viable ICD design that has predictable flow performance using CFD, minimizes erosion and erosion-corrosion in either direction, minimizes running OD, simplifies the housing design, and allows easy installation at the wellsite with 34 settings per joint. Also discussed are two new advantages over other ICDs that were not anticipated in the original development.

为了防止或减少与水平采油机中的水锥进水有关的问题，沿井眼安装了流入控制装置（ICD），以更好地平衡脚趾到脚跟的流量。基于喷嘴的ICD受欢迎，因为它们易于精确建模，几乎不受粘度影响，并且易于在许多设置下安装在井场。喷嘴既可以安装在基管的壁上（径向），也可以安装在基管和外壳之间的环空（轴向）。前者的优点是较小的最大运行外径（OD），并且不需要密封的耐压外壳。一个缺点是出口速度高，这引起了对基管的腐蚀或腐蚀腐蚀的担忧。

为了克服该缺点，已经开发出具有新颖几何形状的新喷嘴，与相同压力降和流量的传统喷嘴相比，该喷嘴将出口速度降低了大约十倍。计算流体动力学（CFD）首先用于微调设计，以满足生产和（酸）注入方向对喷嘴下游壁剪应力的严格防腐蚀要求，然后绘制流动性能曲线对于四种不同尺寸的喷嘴，它们的阻水能力各不相同，因此可以在井场对每个接头进行许多不同的设置。

然后进行了全面的原型制造和流程测试，以验证CFD流量性能的预测并证明机械完整性和耐腐蚀性能，可实现高生产率的生产和注塑。如本文所述，结果证明了一种坚固且具有商业可行性的ICD设计，使用CFD具有可预测的流动性能，可将任一方向的腐蚀和腐蚀腐蚀最小化，将运行OD值最小化，简化外壳设计，并允许在井现场轻松安装。每个关节34个设置。还讨论了原始开发中未预见的与其他ICD相比的两个新优点。