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CFD simulation of core annular flow through sudden contraction and expansion
V.V.R. Kaushik a, Sumana Ghosh a, Gargi Das a,⁎, Prasanta Kumar Das b
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: In the present work, a computational fluid dynamic simulation has been performed to investigate core annu-
Received 30 November 2010 lar flow through sudden contraction and expansion. Core annular flow of lubricating oil and water has been
Accepted 14 March 2012 simulated using VOF technique and a satisfactory match between simulated data and experimental results
Available online 24 March 2012
has been obtained. A detailed study has been performed to generate the profiles of velocity, pressure and volume
fraction over a wide range of oil and water velocities for an abrupt expansion and contraction. Asymmetric nature
Keywords:
sudden contraction
of velocity across the radial plane is observed for both the cases. The fouling characteristic of lubricating oil at
sudden expansion sudden expansion is also analyzed. The model predicts that fouling can be minimized by increasing the water in-
core annular flow take or the pipe diameter.
CFD analysis © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction 2010; Huang et al., 1994; Ko et al., 2002) have also tried to simulate
core-annular flow. Among these, Huang et al. (1994) and Ko et al.
Increasing exhaustion of light oil reserves and the depletion of on- (2002) have simulated turbulent core flow using different turbulence
shore oil fields have directed researchers to find out possible ways to models while Bai et al. (1996) have studied axisymmetric equal density
handle high viscous crude as well as their transportation. Out of several core flow. Recently Ghosh et al. (2010) have simulated core annular
methods of transporting high viscous oil, water-lubricated transport downflow through a glass pipe using FLUENT 6.3.26 (2005). They
emerges as an energy efficient technology in the last few decades. In have used VOF model for simulation and noted a good match between
this case a centrally located oil core enclosed by a thin water film is their experimental and simulated results of pressure drop and film
transported through the pipe. The distribution commonly termed as thickness.
core annular flow encounters significantly reduced pumping power In all the studies, conduits of uniform cross-section have been con-
since the wall friction arises due to flow of water only. sidered. Nevertheless, the use of pipe fittings in cross-country trans-
Owing to its immense industrial importance, several studies, both portation is unavoidable. A commonly encountered fitting in a long
experimental and numerical, have been reported on this topic. The pipeline system is an abrupt change in cross-section (expansion/
experimental studies have considered either horizontal (Arney et contraction). From a survey of the past literature, the majority of the
al., 1993; Grassi et al., 2008; Sotgia et al., 2008) or vertical upflow of studies performed on sudden contraction and expansion involves gas–
oil and water (Bai et al., 1992; Rodriguez et al., 2009; Vanegas Parda liquid flow. These studies have predicted the flow regimes and pressure
and Bannwart, 2001) and attempted to estimate the range of existence loss encountered for different area ratio either experimentally (Ahmed
of core flow and pressure drop characteristics (Arney et al., 1993; Bai et et al., 2008; Fossa and Guglielmini, 2002; Fossa et al., 2006) or analyti-
al., 1992; Grassi et al., 2008; Sotgia et al., 2008). A few analytical models cally (Ahmed et al., 2007; Chen et al., 2009; Schmidt and Friedel,
have been proposed (Arney et al., 1993; Grassi et al., 2008; Rodriguez et 1997). In case of liquid–liquid flow, Hwang and Pal (1997) have per-
al., 2009; Vanegas Parda and Bannwart, 2001) to estimate the pressure formed experiments with low viscous oil–water emulsion and reported
drop in this regime. In addition, various theories have been proposed to pressure profiles and loss coefficients for expansion and contraction of
explain the physics of flow. For example, the hydrodynamic lubrication different area ratios. The only work on high viscous oil–water flow is
theory proposed by Ooms et al. (1984) explains how different forces the experiments performed by Balakhrisna et al. (2010) with lube oil
counterbalance each other in a horizontal pipe. The theory is further and water. They have observed several types of core flow and observed
modified by Oliemans et al. (1987), Ooms and Poesio (2003) and that sudden changes in cross-section have a significant influence on the
Ooms et al. (2007). Several researches (Bai et al., 1996; Ghosh et al., downstream phase distribution.
The present work simulates core flow using the same fluid pair
through the same geometries as mentioned by Balakhrisna et al.
(2010). Such an effort is expected to extend the study over a wider
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 91 3222 283952; fax: + 91 3222 282250. range of parametric variations and can enhance the physical insight
E-mail address: gargi@che.iitkgp.ernet.in (G. Das). into the phenomena.
0920-4105/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2012.03.003
154 V.V.R. Kaushik et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 86–87 (2012) 153–164
2. Model development where,ρ,U,α, t, S are density, velocity, phase fraction, time and mass
source respectively. In the present case S is zero.
Fig. 1a and b depicts the geometries of the flow passage considered Momentum:
for computational modeling. Both the geometries consist of two tubes A single momentum equation is solved throughout the do-
of diameter 0.012 m and 0.0254 m. The total length of the computational main and the resulting velocity field is shared among the phases.
domain in both the cases is 0.6 m. This ensures enough axial length Assuming turbulent flow, the momentum equation can be writ-
needed for the development of flow. For the establishment of core an- ten as:
nular flow, co-axial entry of both the fluids with lube oil (μ = 0.22 Pa-s
and density 960 kg/m3) at the core and water (μ = 0.001 Pa-s and den- ∂ðρU Þ h i
T
þ ∇:ðρU:U Þ ¼ −∇P þ ∇: μ ∇U þ ∇U þ ðρg Þ þ F ð2Þ
sity 999 kg/m3) at the periphery has been considered as shown in ∂t
figure.
FLUENT 6.3.26 (2005) has been used for the simulation. Finite volume where, P, g, F, μ are pressure in the flow field, acceleration due
technique is used to discretize the governing equations. After discretiza- to gravity, body force acting on the system and viscosity of the
tion, the governing equations are solved by using segregated solver. The flow system respectively.
computation has been performed for unsteady flow to investigate the
initial development of core annular flow in sudden contraction and ex- 2.2. Secondary phase tracking
pansion. The assumptions include unsteady flow, immiscible liquid pair,
constant liquid properties and co-axial entry of the liquids through The volume fraction of each liquid in each computational cell is
straight nozzles. tracked throughout the domain. In each control volume, the fraction
of all the phases sum up to unity. All variables and physical properties
are shared by each phase. Hence they can be represented by volume-
2.1. Governing equations averaged values, as long as the volume fraction of each of the phases
is known at each location. Thus the properties in a given cell are rep-
Modeling of multiphase flow needs special attention due to the resentative of the presence of either of the phases, or a mixture of
presence of a number of phases, time and space variant interfaces, them, depending upon the volume fraction values (FLUENT user
multiple scales and large number of interacting phenomena (multi- guide 6.2, 2005). In other words, if the volume fraction of qth fluid
physics). Different approaches are used for different flow patterns. in the cell is denoted as αq, then the following three conditions are
Separated flow with relatively well-defined interface can be simulated possible:
by an Eulerian–Eulerian approach with a suitable treatment for the in-
• αq = 0: the cell does not contain fluid q
terface. Considering the hydrodynamics of core annular flow (Ghosh
• αq = 1: the cell is occupied solely by fluid q
et al., 2010), Eulerian–Eulerian based Volume of Fluid (VOF) technique
• 0 b αq b 1: the cell contains the interface between the qth fluid and
for two-phase modeling available in FLUENT is a suitable choice. In this
one or more other fluids.
technique a single set of momentum equation is shared by both the
fluids. Depending on the local value of αq, the appropriate properties and
The governing equations are: variables are calculated in each control volume within the computa-
Continuity: tional domain. For example, the density and viscosity used in Eqs. 1
and 2 can be estimated as:
∂ðρÞ X
p
þ ∇:ðρU Þ ¼ ∑ Sq ð1Þ ρ¼ ρq α q ð3Þ
∂t q
1
X
p
energy and viscous dissipation rates which are used to obtain the tur-
μ¼ αq μ q ð4Þ
1
bulent viscosity in the flow field.
Contraction geometry
0.6 0.3 45,396 7187.64 19
Subscripts o and w denote oil and water phase respectively and 55,037 9071.91 27
subscript s denotes superficial conditions. D, ρ, μ and U are inlet 65,105 11,196.16 40
75,851 12,036.54 56
pipe diameter, density, viscosity and velocity respectively.
From single phase pipe flow considerations, (McCabe et al., 1993) Expansion geometry
the flow of oil core is always laminar while the flow of water in the 0.6 0.6 34.769 164.03 14
annular film is turbulent. Among the turbulent models available 42,361 182.62 21
(FLUENT user guide 6.2, 2005) the k–ε model has been selected to 55,105 200.08 38
63,109 206.76 49
simulate the flow conditions. The model estimates turbulent kinetic
156 V.V.R. Kaushik et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 86–87 (2012) 153–164
Fig. 4. Comparison of simulated and photographs of flow regimes at Uso = 0.6 m/s.
the source term added to the momentum equation and has the fol-
lowing form:
α i ρi κ j ∇α j þ α j ρj κ i ∇α i
F ¼ ∑ σ ij ð18Þ
2 ρi þ ρj
ij 1
ρκ 1 ∇α 1
F ¼ σ 12 1 ð20Þ
2 ðρ1 þ ρ2 Þ
In all the cases the flow has been initialized from oil inlet. The
boundary conditions are reported below:
used to introduce oil and water in the pipeline. The nozzle introduces
oil centrally and water in the annular space between the oil core and
the pipe wall. For simulating the practical situation a small pipe prior
to the main pipe is considered in both the cases (Fig. 1a and b). This
pipe is referred as nozzle in the present study. At the inlet of the noz-
zle, the oil velocity is specified while the water velocity is specified at
the annular face between the nozzle and the main pipe. Accordingly,
considering uniform velocity distribution normal to the inlet plane,
the inlet boundary conditions are:
a) For sudden contraction
t=0.45 sec
t=0.6 sec
t=0.8 sec
t=0.93 sec
Fig. 6. Comparison of experimental and predicted frictional pressure gradient. Fig. 8. Development of core flow with time; Uso = 0.6 m/s, Usw = 0.3 m/s.
V.V.R. Kaushik et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 86–87 (2012) 153–164 159
3. Numerical simulation
The meshing of the models has been done using a software GAM-
BIT. Smaller adaptive meshes are generated near the wall since a thin
water film is expected here. To ensure grid independence of the re-
sults, numerical pressure gradients downstream of the plane of area
change are estimated by varying number of meshes. The comparisons
for both contraction and expansion geometries are given in Table 1.
Based on the optimum performance in terms of accuracy and compu-
tational effort, 65105 and 55105 hexahedral elements are chosen for
the individual geometries shown in Fig. 1a and b respectively. Fig. 2a
and b depicts the meshed geometries.
a) b)
c) d)
Fig. 9. Phase distribution at different axial locations of contraction, at t = 0.92 s;
Uso = 0.6 m/s, Usw = 0.3 m/s. Fig. 11. Fouling at expansion-contours of oil fraction at smaller and larger pipe.
160 V.V.R. Kaushik et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 86–87 (2012) 153–164
volume fraction. In the present study, the numerical computation is experiments. In the figures the pink and the dark blue colors indicate
considered converged when the residuals of the different variables the water and oil phase respectively. The figures depict a reasonable
are lowered by three orders of magnitude. However in case of turbu- matching between the simulated and the experimental flow patterns
lent energy and dissipation rate, a still stringent criterion (five order in some cases. In several other cases at higher phase velocities, the
of magnitude) is used. simulation does not capture the waviness of oil–water interface proper-
Oil and water are introduced at their respective inlets and the un- ly. The reason can be attributed to the method of interface reconstruc-
steady simulation is started. The superficial velocities of both the tion scheme of VOF model as discussed by Ghosh et al. (2010).
phases corresponding to a given experimental condition are set as The simulated data on pressure gradient at up and downstream of
inlet conditions. After a few time steps, the flow of both the phases contraction have been compared with experiments in Fig. 6a and b.
is observed to track the formation of the core flow regime. The figures show that the model predicts pressure gradient at up-
stream as well as downstream within ±20%. In case of expansion,
the predictions at the upstream lie within ±15% while that for the
4. Validation downstream lie within ±25% (Fig. 7a and b).
D
b) Expansion; Uso = 0.6 m/s, Usw = 0.3 m/s
Fig. 12. Pathlines (C) and phase fractions (D) along axial plane.
V.V.R. Kaushik et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 86–87 (2012) 153–164 161
a) b)
a)
b)
Fig. 15. Variation of time averaged in-situ volume fraction of oil along the axis.
V.V.R. Kaushik et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 86–87 (2012) 153–164 163
situ volume fraction of oil is almost uniform at the upstream and However, further investigations are necessary for a complete under-
gradually decreases with length in the downstream region till it at- standing of the flow phenomenon.
tains a constant value after an approximate distance of L/D = 10.
However, Fig. 15b for expansion does not present a similar trend. In 6. Conclusion
this case, αoincreases gradually and starts falling further downstream
from the point of expansion. A sudden change in area introduces irre- Core annular flow of lube oil and water through sudden contrac-
versibility in fluid flow. This irreversibility is more pronounced in tion and expansion has been simulated in the present study. Two
two-phase flow and can be attributed as the reason for the above trend. 3D models have been developed using CFD software FLUENT 6.3.26.
Subsequently, attempts have been made to understand the influ- The validation of the models with experiments reported by
ence of Usoand Usw onαo.Fig. 16a–d shows the variation of αo with Balakhrisna et al. (2010) indicates a good agreement for both the
Uso and Uswin contraction and expansion. For both the cases, the cases. The following conclusions can be made from the present study:
cross-sectional averaged value of αoat −10 L/D and +10 L/D are con-
sidered for up and downstream. The solid lines in the figures depict ➢ The interfacial waves are three dimensional in nature for both an
the variation of αowith Usw at a constant Uso while the dotted lines expanded and a contracted test rig.
represent the variation ofαo with Uso for a given Usw. αo is noted to de- ➢ Asymmetric nature of velocity across the radial plane is observed
crease with increase in Usw and decrease in Uso as expected in both for both the cases.
the upstream and downstream section of the contraction (Fig. 16a–b). ➢ The model has been utilized to predict the operating condition at
However, there are subtle differences in the nature of the curves. The which fouling is minimum in case of a sudden expansion. The
decrease in αo with increase in Usw is sharper at the downstream as model shows that fouling can be minimized either by increasing
compared to upstream while the increase in αo with Uso is gradual in Uswor by making the pipe diameter larger.
both the sections. This trend is also observed for expansion (Fig. 16c–d). ➢ The oil volume fraction (αo) is found to be constant after 10 L/D in
Further, downstream of expansion (Fig. 16d) the decrease of αo case of contraction while it increases from up to downstream in
with increase in Usw is not as sharp as in contraction (Fig. 16b) case of expansion.
while αo increases with increase in Uso and attains an almost constant ➢ The analysis further shows that computational fluid dynamics model
value for a particular value of Usw (Fig. 16d). The disturbance in flow can be used for a satisfactory prediction of the hydrodynamic charac-
due to the presence of a sudden area change causes the asymmetry teristics of core annular flow in sudden contraction and expansion.
between the up and downstream distribution of volume fraction. Therefore, one can use it for practical design with confidence.
a) b)
c) d)
Fig. 16. Variation of time averaged in-situ volume fraction of oil with superficial oil and water velocity.
164 V.V.R. Kaushik et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 86–87 (2012) 153–164
➢ Further, the study reports measures that can be taken to reduce Grassi, B., Strazza, D., Poesio, P., 2008. Experimental validation of theoretical models in
two-phase high-viscosity ratio liquid–liquid flows in horizontal and slightly in-
fouling and can thus be regarded as a guide to design cross coun- clined pipes. Int. J. Multiphase Flow 34, 950–965.
try transport network for high viscous oils. Such an effort has not Huang, A., Christodoulou, C., Joseph, D.D., 1994. Friction factor and hold up studies for
been reported in literature to the best of the author's knowledge lubricated pipelining part-2: laminar and k–ε models of eccentric core flow. Int. J.
Multiphase Flow 20, 481–491.
and is expected to be an important contribution in the field of pe- Hwang, C.Y.J., Pal, R., 1997. Flow of two-phase oil/water mixtures through sudden ex-
troleum science and engineering. pansion and contractions. Chem. Eng. J. 68, 157–163.
Issa, R.I., 1986. Solution of the implicitly discretized fluid flow equations by operator
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