CFD SIMULATION OF SAND CONTENT INFLUENCE IN OIL PRODUCTION PIPELINES

Abstract

The presence of sand close to hydrocarbons in production is most often harmful to well productivity. This also leads to undesired problems in surface devices and equipment, as well as obstructions in the production column and, consequently, decreasing fluid flow production and causing severe economic losses to the field. The objective of this work is to study the influence of sand content in production pipelines through simulation using computational fluid dynamics tools ICEM CFD and ANSYS CFX 19.0- student version in vertical, directional and horizontal well scenarios, with variations of parameters such as the saturation of the fluids present in the system and the type of oil being produced. The results obtained indicate some impacts of excessive sand production in oil wells, such as a decrease in productivity in more than 20% for the case with 10% sand content in the pipeline, and a decrease in productivity in more than 39% for the case with 20% sand content in the pipe. In addition, the increase in head loss for lifting fluids was observed.