Application of stability solver for severe slugging considering a choking device and a tubing connected to a Wet Christmas Tree

• Published in: Journal of petroleum science & engineering Vol. 192; p. 107316
• Main Authors: Andreolli, I., Azevedo, G.R., Baliño, J.L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-09-2020
• Subjects: Choking; Petroleum production; Severe slugging; Stability solver; Three-phase flow; Tubing; Petroleum production; Three-phase flow; Severe slugging; Tubing; Choking; Stability solver
• ISSN: 0920-4105; 1873-4715
• DOI: 10.1016/j.petrol.2020.107316

This work is an improvement of a previous work (Andreolli et al. 2018) by including a tubing as a subsystem of the pipeline–riser system, a realistic choke valve model to predict the two-phase critical flow and pressure drop before the separator and boundary conditions between stretches of the geometry, in order to improve the determination of the stability boundary. The improved stability solver is applied for a three phase flow (gas, oil and water). Stability for operational points obtained from actual measurements are successfully predicted with the stability maps generated by the solver considering the tubing connected to the Wet Christmas Tree (WCT). A parametric analysis is made in order to evaluate a choke valve influence over stability maps. The stability maps are built by using field conditions at Santos and Campos basins (Brazil). The numerical results present a good agreement with numerical data and real operational conditions. The analysis to evaluate and verify the choke valve influence over stabilization shows a good agreement with the expected behavior.
•Stability solver for severe slugging in air–oil–water systems.•We include a choking device and a tubing connected to the Wet Christmas Tree.•Stability maps showing the influence of different operational conditions.•The model is compared with numerical data and real operational conditions.•We stress the necessity of including a stability solver tool for commercial codes.