Experimental setup for performance characterization of a jet pump with varying angles of placement and depth

Abstract

In an oil field, when the crude cannot come to the surface on its own due to either low pressure differential or the fluid properties like high viscosity, artificial lift technology has to be used. The jet pump is one of the artificial lift techniques considered to be better than other lift systems because of no moving parts and simple working principle. This makes it easy to monitor and regulate. It works on the fluid power hence it can be placed at greater depths and at varying angles with respect to the horizontal. In a field, some wells are deeper than the others, while some are deviated. The performance of a jet pump is different for different cases as the parameters affecting it are the depth and the angle of placement. These aspects with respect to the working of the jet pump need to be investigated and demonstrated. Hence, an effort has been made in this paper to design an experimental setup by which the pump efficiency with respect to depths and angles of placement can be easily determined. The experimental setup uses a jet pump driven by an electric motor of 2.5 kW along with a measurement setup. The jet pump was mounted on a hinged fixture and injection fluid from a centrifugal pump was used. The gate valve was used to throttle the flow for injection and create resistance across the delivery line of the jet pump as a measure of increasing depth. These flow rates were used to characterize the performance of the jet pump.