Modeling emulsion formation in a turbulent tubing flow is required for different petroleum technology applications, such as surface oil/water separation or evaluation of accuracy of subsurface performance of specific logging equipment. Dispersion of noncoalescing droplets in a turbulent tubing flow at droplet holdups reaching 30% is modeled. An in-house developed engineering code based on the advection-diffusion population balance approach is employed for simulations. A model of droplet breakup, recently proposed and validated for high-dispersed phase volume fractions, is incorporated into the code. This model assumes that the droplet breakup process is driven by droplet fluctuations. According to the model, the mean-square droplet fluctuation velocity is calculated using the kinetic theory of granular media.

This developed model is used to study dispersion of water in a turbulent oil flow through a tubing under realistic conditions. One of the important results is an explicit demonstration of a decrease in the droplet size reduction rate with an increase in the water holdup. An evolution of mean droplet sizes along the production tubing under different flow conditions is illustrated. The simulation tool developed is a significant step toward the ultimate goal: an ability to characterize water in oil emulsion prior to multiphase production logging.

对于不同的石油技术应用（例如地表油/水分离或特定测井设备的地下性能精度评估），需要在湍流的油管中模拟乳液的形成。对非凝聚液滴在湍流油管中的扩散率进行了建模，使液滴保持率达到30％。基于对流扩散人口平衡方法的内部开发的工程规范用于模拟。最近提出并针对高分散相体积分数进行验证的液滴破碎模型已纳入代码中。该模型假设液滴破裂过程是由液滴波动驱动的。根据该模型，使用粒状介质的动力学理论计算了均方滴的波动速度。

这个开发的模型用于研究在现实条件下水在通过管道的湍流油中的分散性。重要的结果之一是明确证明了随着持水量的增加，液滴尺寸减小率减小。示出了在不同流动条件下沿着生产管道的平均液滴尺寸的变化。开发的仿真工具朝着最终目标迈出了重要的一步：在多相生产测井之前能够表征油乳液中的水。