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Hydrodynamics analysis of Taylor flow in oil and gas pipelines under constant heat flux

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Abstract

This is an incompressible numerical study of the hydrodynamics and heat transfer characteristics of Taylor flow in vertical oil and gas pipelines under constant heat flux using the Volume-of-fluid (VOF) method in ANSYS Fluent, covering a wide range of Re(0.22 ≤ Re ≤ 800) and Ca(0.0075 ≤ Ca ≤ 0.35). Nusselt number (Nu) correlations were used to examine the heat transfer characteristics based on a set of flow parameters. A comparison of the predictions of the void fraction, average velocity, pressure drop and the mean Nusselt number was made with available experimental observations, with most of the experimental data falling within 15.540% of the current study. The bubble increases in length with increasing capillary number and the wall of the tube at the confines of the gas phase leads to asymmetric and axisymmetric bubbles at low and high capillary numbers respectively. The transition region between the edge of the bubble and the film thickness increases with an equivalent increase in Ca and more evident at high Re. The study revealed that, Taylor flow plays a more significant role on the pressure drop increase and, provided the mechanisms and theoretical guidance for heat transfer characteristics in oil and gas pipelines.

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Abbreviations

a:

constant

c p :

specific heat capacity, Jkg−1K−1

Ca :

Capillary number, μLUTP/σ

D :

diameter of the column, m

Eo:

Eotvos number, g(ρL − ρG)D2/σ

Fr:

Froude number, \( {U}_{TB}/\sqrt{gD\left({\rho}_L-{\rho}_G\right)/{\rho}_L} \)

g :

acceleration due to gravity, m/s2

G :

gas phase

k :

Thermal conductivity, Wm−1K−1

k :

the kth phase fluid

κ :

Interface curvature

L :

liquid phase

L s :

liquid slug length

Luc :

unit cell length, m

M:

Morton number

MRF:

Moving Frame of Reference

Nu:

Nusselt number, hD/k

Nuav :

mean Nusselt number

Nux :

local Nusselt number

Nu*:

normalized Nusselt number, NuTP/NuLO

Nu LO :

fully developed liquid-only Nusselt number for constant heat flux conditions.

Nu TP :

two-phase Nusselt number,hTP/kL

q :

heat flux, Wm−2

q av :

average heat flux,Wm−2

R :

bubble radius, m

ReTP :

two-phase (liquid only Reynolds number), UTPρLd/μL

Re:

Reynolds number

H:

specific enthalpy, J/kg

T b, av :

average bulk Temperature, K

T W, av :

average Temperature, K

U TP :

mixture velocity, m/s

U TB :

Taylor bubble velocity, m/s

U L :

liquid superficial velocity, m/s

U Wall :

velocity of the moving wall, m/s

u x :

axial velocity,m/s

υ :

velocity vector, m/s

ν x :

radial velocity, m/s

σ :

surface tension, N/m

ρ G :

gas density, kg/m3

ρ L :

liquid density, kg/m3

μ G :

gas viscosity, Pa s

μ L :

liquid viscosity, Pa s

α G :

volume fraction of the gas phase

α L :

volume fraction of the liquid phase

δ F :

liquid film thickness

ε :

void fraction

β :

homogeneous void fraction

av:

average value for a unit cell

b:

bubble

f:

fluid

G:

gas

i:

interface

in:

inlet

L:

liquid

out:

outlet

TB:

Taylor bubble

TP:

two-phase flow

UC:

unit cell

W:

wall

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Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful for the help provided by Qiongyao Qin at the school of Energy and Power Engineering of the Nanjing University of Science and Technology and the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC No. 2016GXYD13).

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  1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science & Technology, Nanjing, China

    Sidique Gawusu & Xiaobing Zhang

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  1. Sidique Gawusu
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Contributions

Sidique Gawusu: Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Xiaobing Zhang: Conceptualization, Resources, Supervision, Project administration, Writing - review & editing.

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Correspondence to Xiaobing Zhang.

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Gawusu, S., Zhang, X. Hydrodynamics analysis of Taylor flow in oil and gas pipelines under constant heat flux. Heat Mass Transfer 57, 515–527 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-020-02965-z

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