Experimental and numerical study of slug flow in horizontal perforated wellbore

Abstract

There have been experimental and numerical studies focused on flow patterns, pressure drops, and void fractions along horizontal wellbores. Despite the fact that few studies have examined two-phase flow in a perforated horizontal wellbore. This phenomenon has been the focus of most studies on a perforated wellbore pressure drop until recently. Experimental and numerical studies are presented in this paper to analyze slug flow in a horizontal perforated wellbore with an inner diameter of 25.4 mm, a length of 2 m, and fourteen perforations evenly distributed. An ANSYS Fluent VOF model of unsteady, turbulent, and three-dimensional flow is simulated with varying water and air superficial velocities to investigate the effect of increasing axial and radial velocities on slug flow, pressure drop, productivity, void fraction, and liquid holding up along the horizontal wellbore. An investigation of three slug flow cases was conducted in the present study. At (1 m/s for Usw & 1.5 m/s for Usa) in the first case, raising the air superficial velocity to 1.6 m/s in the second case, and increasing the water superficial velocity to 2.1 m/s in the third case. Slug flow along the perforated horizontal wellbore was investigated experimentally. As a result of the research, increased axial flow has a greater impact than increased radial flow rate on slug flow, pressure drop, and productivity can be improved with axial velocity. With axial velocity increasing, productivity in case two is 38.82% higher than in case one, while in case three, with radial velocity increasing, productivity is 14.34% higher than in case one. In addition, there is good agreement between the experimental and numerical results.