Numerical Simulation of Hydrate Particle Migration and Deposition in Horizontal Pipe Flow

Abstract

AbstractDuring the development of deep-water gas wells, the low temperature and high pressure environment near the mudline is easy to form hydrate in the wellbore, resulting in severe hydrate plugging risk. In this paper, the traditional discrete phase model is optimized by establishing the hydrate particle transport model and the judgment criterion of particle deposition on the pipe wall, so as to numerically simulate the hydrate particle transport and deposition law in the pipe flow. Through the simulation, we get the velocity distribution and concentration distribution of hydrate particles in the pipe flow. It is found that the deposition rate of particles generated in the gas core can reach about 7%, which decreases with the increase of gas velocity and increases with the increase of particle size. This conclusion confirms the importance of hydrate particles deposition in the gas core to the overall hydrate deposition, which lays a foundation for the accurate calculation of hydrate deposition blockage.KeywordsNatural gas hydrateParticle migrationParticle depositionNumerical simulation