Cfd prediction of oil-water two-phase stratified flow in a horizontal channel: coupled level set - vof approach

Year 2020, Volume: 38 Issue: 1, 1 - 19, 27.03.2020

Satish Kumar Dewangan Santosh Kumar Senapatı Vivek Deshmukh

Abstract

The present work focuses on the investigation of the effects of (a) superficial oil velocity, and (b) inlet temperature to wall temperature ratio considering the two dimensional oil-water stratified flow in a horizontal pipe using ANSYS Fluent. Coupled level set and volume of fluid (CLSVOF) have been used to capture the evolving interface assuming unsteady, coaxial flow with constant fluid properties. For both cases, the radial variation of oil volume fraction, mixture velocity, total pressure, and pressure gradient has been studied. The stratified flow pattern has been obtained for both cases. The pressure gradient has not been found to be very much sensitive to the inlet to wall temperature ratio. The analysis can helpful in predicting & preventing the blockage of the oil pipeline due to wax formation, by managing to control the fall of oil temperature below wax appearance state. Hence these findings could be useful in designing the transportation pipeline in the petroleum industries, chemical industries etc. and also in pipeline flow control administration.

Keywords

Oil-water stratified flow, horizontal channel, CLSVOF.

References

• [1] Ansys Fluent manuals (2012) - Theory and theory guide.
• [2] Ayati A.A., Kolaas J., Jensen A. and Johnson G.W. (2014). A PIV investigation of stratified gas–liquid flow in a horizontal pipe. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, vol. 61, pp.129–143.
• [3] Ayati A.A., Kolaas J., Jensen A. and Johnson G.W. (2015). Combined simultaneous two-phase PIV and interface elevation. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, vol.74, pp. 45–58. [4] Brackbill J.U., Kothe D.B. and Zemach C. (1992). A continuum method for modeling surface tension. Journal of Computational Physics, vol.100, pp.335-354.
• [5] Brauner N., Rovinsky J., Moalem D. and Maron D. (1996). Analytical Solution for Laminar-Laminar Two-Phase Flow in Circular Conduits. Chem. Eng. Comm., vol. 141/142, pp. 103–143.
• [6] Chang Y.C., Hou T.Y., Merriman B.and Osher S. (1996). A Level set Formulation of Eulerian Interface capturing methods for incompressible fluid flows, Journal of computational physics vol.124, pp.449-464.
• [7] Das S., Gada V.H. and Sharma A. (2015). Analytical and Level set method-Based numerical study for two phase stratified flow in a pipe. Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A, vol. 67, pp.1253–1281.
• [8] Datta D., Gada V.H. and Sharma A. (2011). Analytical and Level-Set Method-Based Numerical Study for Two-Phase Stratified Flow in a Plane Channel and a Square Duct. Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A: Applications: An International Journal of Computation and Methodology, vol.60:4, pp. 347-380.
• [9] Desamala B., Dasamahapatra A. and Mandal T. (2014). Oil-Water Two-Phase Flow Characteristics in Horizontal Pipeline – A Comprehensive CFD Study. International Journal of Chemical, Molecular, Nuclear, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, vol.8, issue 4.
• [10] Dogonchi A. S., Hatami. M. and Domairry G. (2015). Motion analysis of a spherical solid particle in plane Couette Newtonian fluid flow. Powder Technology, vol. 274, p.p.186–192.
• [11] Duan J., Gong J., Yao H., Deng T. and Zhou J. (2014). Numerical modeling for stratified gas–liquid flow and heat transfer in pipeline. Applied Energy, vol. 115, pp.83–94.
• [12] Elseth G. (2001). An Experimental Study of Oil / Water Flow in Horizontal Pipes. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for the degree of Dr. Ing.
• [13] Faccini J., Filho J., Sampaio P. and Su J. (2015). Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Stratified Gas–Liquid Flow in Downward- inclined Pipes. Heat Transfer Engineering, Vol.36:11, pp. 943-951.
• [14] Gada V.H. and Sharma A. (2011) .On a Novel Dual grid Level Set method for two phase flow simulation. Numerical heat Transfer part-B Fundamentals, vol. 59(1), pp. 26-57.
• [15] Gada V.H. and Sharma A. (2012). Analytical and level-set method based numerical study on oil–water smooth/wavy stratified-flow in an inclined plane-channel, International journal of Multiphase flow, vol. 38, issue 1, pp.99-117.
• [16] Gada V.H. and Sharma. A (2009). on derivation and physical interpretation of Level set-Based equation for two phase flow simulation. Numerical heat Transfer part-B Fundamentals, vol. 56(4), pp.307-322
• [17] Goldstein A., Ullmann A. and Brauner N. (2015). Characteristics of stratified laminar flows in inclined pipes. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, vol.75, pp.267–287.
• [18] Hatami. M. and Ganji D.D. (2014b). Motion of a spherical particle on a rotating parabola using Lagrangian and high accuracy Multi-step Differential Transformation Method. Powder Technology, vol. 258, pp.94–98.
• [19] Hatami. M. and Ganji D.D.(2014a). Motion of a spherical particle in a fluid forced vortex by DQM and DTM. Particuology, vol. 16 pp. 206-212.
• [20] Hatami. M., Sheikholeslami M., and Domairry G. (2014). High accuracy analysis for motion of a spherical particle in plane Couette fluid flow by Multi-step Differential Transformation Method. Powder Technology, Vol. 260, p.p.59–67.
• [21] Hatami. M., Song D. and Jing D. (2016). Optimization of a circular-wavy cavity filled by nanofluid under the natural convection heat transfer condition. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 98, p.p.758–767. [22] Joyce G. and Soliman H.M. (2016). Pressure drop for two-phase mixtures combining in a tee junction with wavy flow in the combined side. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, vol.70, pp.307–315.
• [23] Lee S., Euh D., Kim S., and Song C (2015).quantitative observation of co-current stratified two-phase flow in a horizontal rectangular channel. Nuclear engineering technology, vol.47, pp. 267-283.
• [24] Li H.Y., Yap Y.F., Lou J. and Shang Z. (2014) .Numerical modeling of three-fluid flow using the level-set method. Chemical Engineering Science, vol. 126, pp. 224-236.
• [25] Li H.Y., Yap Y.F., Lou J. and Shang Z. (2014). Numerical investigation of heat transfer in three-fluid stratified flows. International journal of Heat and Mass transfer vol.89, pp. 576-587.
• [26] Mark S., Peter S .and Stanley O. (1994). A Level Set approach for computing solution to incompressible two phase flow, Journal of computational physics, vol.114, pp.146-159.
• [27] Mehravaran M. and Hannani S. (2008). Simulation of incompressible two-phase flows with large density differences employing lattice Boltzmann and level set methods. Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg, vol. 198, pp. 223–233.
• [28] Min C. (2010).On reinitializing Level Set function. Journal of computational physics, vol. 229 pp. 2764–2772.
• [29] Pandey S., Gupta A., Chakrabarti D., Das G. and Ray S. (2006). Liquid–liquid two phase flow through a horizontal t-junction. Chemical Engineering Research and Design, vol. 84(A10), pp. 895–904.
• [30] Picchi D., Correra S. and Poesio P. (2014). Flow pattern transition, pressure gradient, hold-up predictions in gas/non-Newtonian power-law fluid stratified flow. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, Vol. 63, PP.105–115.
• [31] Pitton et al. (2014). An experimental study of stratified–dispersed flow in horizontal pipes. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, vol. 67, pp.92–103.
• [32] Rezaie N.Z., Avval M.S. and Mirzaei M. (2014). Analytical and numerical investigation of heat transfer and entropy generation of stratified two-phase flow in mini-channel, International Journal of Thermal Sciences, vol. 90, pp.24-37.
• [33] Rodriguez O.M.H. and Baldani L.S. (2012). Prediction of pressure gradient and holdup in wavy stratified liquid–liquid inclined pipe flow. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering ,vol. 96-97,pp. 140–151
• [34] Rodriguez.O and Castro.M (2014). Interfacial-tension-force model for the wavy-stratified liquid–liquid flow pattern transition. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, vol. 58, pp. 114–126.
• [35] Sabelnikov V., Ovsyannikov A. and Gorokhovski M. (2014). Modified level set equation and its numerical assessment. Journal of computational physics, vol.278, pp.1-30.
• [36] Salih A. and Ghosh M. (2009). Some numerical studies of interface advection properties of Level set method, Sadhana, vol. 34(2), pp. 271–298.
• [37] Seikhi A. and Ecder A. (2013) Level Set Analysis of Two-Fluid Interfacial Flows. International conference on computational science, ICCS, Procedia Computer Science, vol.18, pp. 2420 – 2423.
• [38] Sethian J.A (1999). Level Set Methods and Fast Marching Methods, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, New York.
• [39] Simoes E., Carneiro J. and Nieckele A. (2014). Numerical prediction of non-boiling heat transfer in horizontal stratified and slug flow by the Two-Fluid Model. International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, vol.47, pp. 135–145.
• [40] Son G. (2003). Efficient implementation of a coupled level set and volume-of-fluid method for three-dimensional incompressible Two-phase flows, numerical heat transfer, part B: fundamentals, vol. 43(6), pp. 549-565.
• [41] Son G. and Hur N. (2010). a coupled level set and volume-of-fluid method for the buoyancy-driven motion of fluid particles. Numerical Heat Transfer, Part B: Fundamentals, vol. 42(6), pp.523-542.
• [42] Sun D. and Tao W. (2009). A coupled volume-of-fluid and level set (VOSET) method for computing incompressible two-phase flows. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol.53, pp.645– 655.
• [43] Tang W., Hatami. M., Zhou J. and Jing D. (2017). Natural convection heat transfer in a nanofluid-filled cavity with double sinusoidal wavy walls of various phase deviations. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 115, p.p.430–440.
• [44] Tanguy S., Me‘nard T. and Berlemont A. (2006). A Level Set Method for vaporizing two-phase flows. Journal of Computational Physics, vol. 221 pp.837–853.
• [45] Yap Y.F., Chai J.C., Toh K.C. and Wong T.N. (2006). Modeling the flows of two Immiscible Fluids in a three-Dimensional square Channel Using the Level-Set Method. Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A: Applications: An International Journal of Computation and Methodology, vol. 49:9, pp.893-904.