Experimental and modeling study of onset of liquid accumulation

Abstract

One of the big challenges in gas wells is related to liquid loading. The current study presents an experimental investigation of onset of liquid accumulation in a 6-in. upward inclined pipe at low liquid loading conditions. A new model is developed based on the physics of the onset of liquid film reversal. Parametric study and model evaluation show that it captures the effects of inclination angle, liquid flow rate, gas and liquid density, viscosity, and pipe diameter on the critical gas velocity, outperforming all other exiting models.The experiments in this study provide new insides into the onset liquid accumulation in large diameter pipes/wells. The new mechanics model fills the critical gap to enhance the accuracy when predicting the onset of liquid accumulation especially for large-diameter deviated wells and inclined pipes. It can be easily implemented, which will benefit the industry practically.