Abstract
Electric submersible pumps (ESPs) are widely used in the oil and gas industry for crude-oil lifting, especially in subsea oil fields or underground storage caverns. The failure of ESPs causes a large economic cost mainly attributed to a break in production continuity, as the ESP cannot be easily replaced. Therefore, the assurance of safe and efficient operation of ESPs has attracted high attention in recent years, although the problem still remains challenging given the complexity of carrying fluid and the mechanical structure of the ESP. In this article, we systematically review both the high-impact, classic contributions and the most up-to-date, current opinions in experimental and numerical advances of viscous effects and two-phase flow in ESPs. We specifically focus on the applications in the oil and gas industry and point out a few current challenges in the operation of ESPs. We aim to guide the audience which is new to the area of ESPs to the correct articles related to their interests, including classic work and recent advances.
Highlights
With rapid development of the world economy and continuous exploitation of land resources, much attention has been paid to offshore oil fields
Note that the effects of corrosive wear in the electric submersible pumps (ESPs) are not covered in this review, as we focused on the applications in the oil and gas industry, when crude oil is the carrying fluid
When the pressure drops to the bubble point pressure, gas in crude oil is separated out and gas-liquid two-phase flow appears in the ESP
Summary
With rapid development of the world economy and continuous exploitation of land resources, much attention has been paid to offshore oil fields. To understand the effects of fluid viscosity and two-phase flow on ESP performance, various experimental tests on different operation conditions were conducted to achieve empirical coefficients, which were combined with analytical equations and semi-empirical formulas to explain pump performance. We selected the higher-impact, classic contributions and the most up-to-date, novel results for the current framework of the review article to systematically evaluate the experimental and numerical advances in the study of viscous effects and two-phase flow in ESPs. Note that the effects of corrosive wear in the ESP are not covered in this review, as we focused on the applications in the oil and gas industry, when crude oil is the carrying fluid. Corrosive damage is usually not as important as erosion/abrasion
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