Investigation of Liquid Loading in Gas Well: Simultaneous Measurements of Drop-Size, Film Thickness and Pressure Drop

Abstract

The mechanism of atomization of part of the liquid film to form drops in annular two-phase flow is not entirely understood. It has been observed that drop creation only occurs when there are large disturbance waves present on the film interface. Woodmansee and Hanratty [1] observed that ripples on these waves were a precursor to drops. Though it has been reported that drops occur in bursts by Azzopardi [2], all previous drop size or concentration measurements have always been time integrated to simplify data analysis. Dynamic time averaged drop-size measurements are reported for the first time for annular two-phase flow. Experiments were carried out on a 19mm internal diameter vertical pipe with air and water as fluids. Spraytec, a laser diffraction-based, drop size measurement instrument, was used in the data acquisition. Simultaneous time-resolved measurements were made of: film thickness using conductance probes employing a pair of flush mounted rings as electrodes; and pressure gradient. The gas superficial velocity was 13–43 m/s at liquid superficial velocities of 0.05 and 0.15 m/s. Additional tests were carried out with the gas velocity at 14 m/s for liquid superficial velocities of 0.03–0.18 m/s. Though structures are not clearly visible in the signals acquired, they have been analyzed in amplitude and frequency space to yield Probability Density Function (PDF) and to identify the dominant frequency. Cross-correlation between two film thickness probes provides the wave velocities. Based on the signal analysis, links between film thickness, drop concentration and pressure drop have been identified.