Numerical simulation of gas-liquid flow in inclined shale gas pipelines

Abstract

Corrosion and perforation accidents often occur in shale gas gathering pipelines, which causes serious economic losses. The accumulation laws and flow field of shale gas gathering pipelines are revealed by OLGA and ANSYS Fluent simulation. Under different working conditions, the gas entering the pipeline contains 1.3∼3.1% water, which will condense in the pipelines with the decrease of temperature and form effusion. The effusion is mostly distributed in low-lying places and climbing pipe sections, which is consistent with the location of corrosion perforation. Through the three-dimensional simulation of the local upward pipe section, the effusion pipe will form vortices to accelerate the corrosion mass transfer. Further combine the high-temperature and high-pressure reactor experiment, the flowing causes of corrosion failure of shale gas gathering pipelines in the lower part of upward inclined pipeline sections are determined. Therefore, the lower part of the upward inclined pipeline section is a high-risk corrosion area.