Assembled in series with multistage, Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESP) are widely used in offshore petroleum production due to the high production rate and efficiency. The hydraulic performance of ESPs is subjected to the fluid viscosity. High oil viscosity leads to the degradation of ESP boosting pressure compared to the catalog curves under water flow. In this paper, the influence of fluid viscosity on the performance of a 14-stage radial-type ESP under varying operational conditions, e.g. rotational speeds 1800–3500 r/min, viscosities 25–520 cP, was investigated. Numerical simulations were conducted on the same ESP model using a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. The simulated average pump head is comparable to the corresponding experimental data under different viscosities and rotational speeds with less than ±20% prediction error. A mechanistic model accounting for the viscosity effect on ESP boosting pressure is proposed based on the Euler head in a centrifugal pump. A conceptual best-match flowrate Q_BM is introduced, at which the impeller outlet flow direction matches the designed flow direction. The recirculation losses caused by the mismatch of velocity triangles and other head losses resulted from the flow direction change, friction loss and leakage flow etc., are included in the model. The comparison of model predicted pump head versus experimental measurements under viscous fluid flow conditions demonstrates good agreement. The overall prediction error is less than ±10%.

电动潜水泵（ESP）与多级串联组装，由于其高生产率和高效率而广泛用于海上石油生产。ESP的水力性能受流体粘度的影响。与水流下的目录曲线相比，高油粘度导致ESP增压压力降低。在本文中，研究了在不同的操作条件下，例如转速1800-3500 r / min，粘度25-520 cP，流体粘度对14级径向型ESP性能的影响。使用商业计算流体动力学（CFD）软件在相同的ESP模型上进行了数值模拟。在不同的粘度和转速下，模拟的平均泵压头与相应的实验数据相当，预测误差小于±20％。基于离心泵中的欧拉压头，提出了一种考虑粘度对电除尘器增压压力影响的机理模型。概念上最匹配的流量引入Q _BM，在该处叶轮出口流向与设计流向匹配。该模型包括因速度三角形不匹配而引起的再循环损失以及由流向变化，摩擦损失和泄漏流动等引起的其他扬程损失。在粘性流体流动条件下，模型预测的泵压头与实验测量值的比较证明了很好的一致性。总体预测误差小于±10％。