DEVELOPMENT OF A VORTEX CHAMBER MODEL TO ESTIMATE THE VALUES OF THE LIQUID AND GASEOUS PHASES

Abstract

When preparing well products from gas fields at complex gas treatment plants, dry stripped gas and unstable condensate are separated. During the exploitation of a field, development indicators (flow rate, reservoir pressure, composition of extracted products, etc.) change. At the same time, the efficiency of the apparatus for separating the gas and liquid phases decreases, which is accompanied by an increase in the entrainment of the liquid phase from the gaseous phase and can reach about 30–40 % of the total volume. This affects economic efficiency indicators, since the volume of unstable condensate decreases, and, consequently, the profit from its sale.The article is devoted to studying the effectiveness of using vortex chambers to reduce the entrainment of the liquid phase from the gaseous phase during the preparation of well products. The results of the research analysis are presented, methods for assessing phase transitions in vortex chambers and the mathematical models used are described.The work defines the basic equations that describe the process of entrainment of the liquid phase from the gaseous phase. Thus, to describe the phase boundaries, the volume of fluid model is used, and the standard k – ε is used as a flow turbulence model. A model of a vortex chamber is being developed in ANSYS FLUENT, the mesh model is built using elements – tetrahedrons. The size of the mesh elements was determined from the condition of stability of the resulting solution and amounted to 10 mm.The influence of chamber geometry, liquid mass velocity and other parameters on the process of phase entrainment is considered.A comparison of the results of experimental studies and modeling results shows the possibility of reducing the entrainment of the liquid phase as a result of the use of vortex chambers and justify the selected parameters for developing the model.