A new transient simulation method of natural gas-condensate two-phase flow in pipeline network

Abstract

Two-phase flow in pipeline network plays a significant role in the gathering system of the offshore natural gas-condensate field. However, the study of the transient numerical simulation of pipeline network is insufficient for flow assurance. Therefore, a transient simulation method is developed. The transient two-fluid model including an energy equation for two-phase flow is established firstly. Moreover, unlike pipeline, the node is an extra structure in the network. A corresponding method of discretizing the node domain and governing equations is therefore developed. In this way, the node pressure can be calculated directly rather than iteratively solved through a mass balance equation. Finally, a predict-correct two-phase flow algorithm is proposed. Moreover, a natural gas-condensate field pipeline network is applied to validate and verify the proposed method. Furthermore, a more complex network is simulated. The proposed method provides a reasonable result while the commercial code OLGA gives a divergent result.