Effect of Oil Viscosity on Flow Pattern Transition of Upward Gas-Oil Two-Phase Flow in Vertical Concentric Annulus

Abstract

Summary Gas-oil two-phase flow usually occurs during gas influx into the wellbore annulus of deepwater drilling with oil-based drilling fluid or gas-oil production from the wellbore annulus. A flow pattern transition often is used in well control or in production parameter design. Related studies primarily have focused on gas-water two-phase flow, which is significantly different from gas-viscosity oil two-phase flow. We conducted experiments on a facility that included a flow section that was 13 000 mm long, with a 60-mm inner pipe and a 100-mm outer pipe in the annulus. A range of oil viscosities from 16 to 39 mPa∙s has been studied. The superficial gas and oil velocities varied from 0.55 to 17.077 m/s and from 0 to 0.414 m/s, respectively. A flow pattern was identified based on visualized analysis using electrical capacitance volume tomography (ECVT) and void faction wave analysis. Flow pattern maps of different viscosities were plotted based on measured data. Transition criteria based on Froude number and Archimedes number were established. The new model was compared with gas-water two-phase flow transition models and validated with experimental data. The effect of viscosity on flow pattern transition was revealed. The transition boundary of the bubble to slug flow and slug to churn flow both moved in the direction of smaller superficial gas velocity with an increase in oil viscosity. There may exist a critical viscosity value when churn flow transited to annular flow. When the viscosity was lower than this critical point, the above result was the same for churn to annular flow when the superficial oil velocity was low. With an increase in the superficial oil velocity, however, the boundary gradually changed to high superficial gas velocity as the oil viscosity increased. When the viscosity was larger than the critical point, the oil viscosity had a slight influence on the transition.