Proposed Correlation for Two-Phase Flow in Gas-Lift Well

Abstract

There are many dissolved gas in water type gas fields in Japan. Water and gas are lifted by continuous flow gas-lift in these gas fields. While the development of a field is going on, the static fluid level of gas well becomes deeper and deeper. The studies on the two phase flow incy wells usually do not make mention of submergenceand efficiency of gas-lift. Submergence and efficiency of gas lift, however, seem to be important factors on making a study of two phase flow in a gas-lift well. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of efficiency of gas-lift and submergence on the energy-loss factor. The energy-loss factor was calculated by the method proposed by Poettmann and Carpenter. It was found in this study that the energy-loss factor could not be correlated with the submergence. The exprimental apparatus is illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 1. The lift pipe was 2.71 meters long. The diameter was 9mm. The sand packed pipe was provided at the bottom of the vertical pipe. The use of the sand packed pipe permitted to make tests at essentially the same productivity index. Fig. 2 shows a part of the available data of the water flow rate with the air injection rate. The energy-loss factor was plotted against Dvρ in Fig. 4 and Fig. 7. From these charts it is noted that the energy-loss factor is a function of liquid flow rate and efficiency of gas-lift. Fig. 8 shows a plot of the energy-loss factor with the efficiency of gas-lift. A family of curves with liquid flow rate as parameter is drawn, as shown in Fig. 8. Fig. 9 shows the relationship between the energy-loss factor and the water flow rate. In this plot only the data that the efficiency of gas-lift are more than 10 per cent, are used. The new methods of correlation as shown in Fig. 8 and Fig 9 may be used when determining energy-loss factor of a well produced by gas-lift.