PLUGGING OF DISPERSED-BUBBLE SUPERSONIC GAS-LIQUID FLOW IN THE SHOCK WAVE

Abstract

Background. Dynamic models of gas-liquid flow structure within the concept of creating a «smart oil producing well» can be used to make predictions of hydrodynamic stability of well production flow when it is under control. Providing for backpressure by installing constricting devices or creating local resistances on the way of the shock wave propagation in the fluid channel in places where supersonic flow of dispersed-bubble gas-liquid flow takes place, a shock wave can be recorded on the local pressure gradient. The physical phenomenon of plugging the supersonic dispersed-bubble flow in the shock wave can be used to create advanced dispersive devices. Aims and Objectives. The objective of this work is to develop a hydrodynamic model of dispersed gas-liquid flow. One of the main problems to solve is to derive main mathematical relations to identify hydrodynamic ruptures in the dispersed-bubble flow structure. Results. Based upon data analysis of known relations for calculation of sound speed in dispersed-bubble gas-liquid mixture, it is shown that despite formal diversity of correlations the majority of them were obtained using Laplace’s equation for gas. The discrepancy between obtained calculated data and experimental measurements does not exceed 5 %. The comparison of calculated dependencies of pressure relations on the shock wave obtained using different methods showed a well compliance of relative pressures in the range of volumetric gas content 0.7-1.0. Negative values at volumetric gas content of 0.3 and underestimated value of relative pressure in the range of volumetric gas content of < 0.7 obtained using popular methods is explained by short-comings of the calculation method, for instance, adiabatic index of the gas-liquid mixture was assumed constant and equal 1.4.