Numerical Simulation and Experimental Research on Dewatering Hydrocyclone

Abstract

Offshore oilfield generally has the characteristics such as high oil content of produced liquid and limited platform space etc, so it is urgent to design a kind of dewatering processing equipment with the following advantages such as small volume, high efficiency and low energy consumption etc. And the dewatering hydrocyclone studied in this paper is such a device which is mainly applied for the dehydration of crude oil in offshore oilfield exploration and development. Hydrocyclone named as the Thew type with double cones double inlets is taken as the initial model, meanwhile the physical medium parameters close to oil pipe of Bohai Sea is selected. Applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, and by means of the Reynolds Stress Model and SIMPLEC algorithm in the FLUENT analysis software, the influence of structural parameters and operating parameters on the pressure field, velocity field and oil phase distribution of dewatering hydrocyclone is analyzed systematically. Some structural parameters, including swirl chamber diameter, underflow pipe length, large cone angle, small cone angle, the diameter of the overflow pipe, overflow pipe length and inlet section size etc, are optimized. A kind of main structure of dewatering hydrocyclone is determined, which can deal with about 40% of the oil-water mixtures for dewatering processing, and the comprehensive separation efficiency is higher. The numerical simulations and the experimental research results in this paper have a great influence on the advanced study and application of dewatering hydrocyclone and provide certain theory evidence for further research on flow field analysis and design improvement.