Project title: Modelling and measurement for future oil & gas multi-flows - experimental investigation and CFD based simulation
The world consumption of natural gas, the cleanest between fossil fuels, is most likely expected to grow more than oil and coal in the future [1]–[4]. During production and transportation, natural gas, can carried a small amount of liquid hydrocarbons and/or water. Generally when the liquid flow rate is less than about 5% of the total volumetric flow rate (gas + liquids), the gas is said wet. Wet gas flow metering is extremely important to Oil and Gas industry for the following reasons:
• Monitoring and optimization of production
• Allocation in shared pipeline system
• Fiscal allocation for taxation purpose
Wet gas measurement using Venturi tubes is actually covered by ISO/TR 11583:2012 [8]. The limitations of ISO/TR 11583:2012 is that it covers two component flows (gas+liquid) through an horizontal oriented Venturi tube, while in the industry three component flows (gas+liquid+liquid) are often encountered and the Venturi tube is placed vertically too. Moreover the effects of disturbances created by upstream fittings installations are not covered by ISO/TR 11583:2012 and none information about are present in the literature. There is strong indication that 3rd component effects or meter orientation effects can each produce errors in wet gas flow measurement in excess of 10%. This can cause serious concern giving, for example, that Europe annual gas production is estimated around 40 bn €.
The aim of this research is to investigate the performance of vertical oriented Venturi tubes in metering wet gas three component flows and the effects due to upstream installations fittings. An experimental campaign will be conducted both with a purpose build facility at GCU, and possibly with the wet gas facility of the National Engineering Laboratory (TUV-NEL, Glasgow, UK). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations will be also conducted to investigate fluid properties changes and the installation effects.
[1] British Petroleum, “BP energy outlook.” 2016.
[2] Exxon Mobil, “The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040.” 2016.
[3] International Energy Agency, “World Energy Outlook 2015.” 2015.
[4] U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Annual Energy Outlook 2015.” 2015.
[5] R. Steven, “Wet gas metering,” University of Strathclyde, 2001.
[6] A. Collins and S. Clark, “Evolution of Wet Gas Venturi Metering and Wet Gas Correction Algorithms,” Measurement and Control, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 15–20, 2013.
[7] A. W. Jamieson, “Wet Gas Metering Key Note - Status and Trends on Technology and Applications,” in 19th International North Sea Flow Measurement Workshop, 2001.
[8] BSI, “Measurement of wet gas flow by means of pressure differential devices inserted in circular cross-section conduits.” PD ISO/TR 11583:2012. British Standards Institution, London, 2012