A finite-element algorithm for Stokes flow through oil and gas production tubing of uniform diameter

Lateef T. Akanji* (Corresponding Author), Joao Chidamoio

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
3 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Stokes flow of a Newtonian fluid through oil and gas production tubing of uniform diameter is studied. Using a direct simulation on computer-aided design of discretised conduits, velocity profiles with gravitational effect and pressure fields are obtained for production tubing of different inner but uniform diameter. The results obtained with this new technique are compared with the integrated form of the Hagen–Poiseuille equation (i.e., lubrication approximation) and data obtained from experimental and numerical studies for flow in vertical pipes. Good agreement is found in the creeping flow regime between the computed and measured pressure fields with a coefficient of
correlation of 0.97. Further, computed velocity field was benchmarked against ANSYS fluent; a finite element commercial software package, in a single-phase flow simulation using the axial velocity profile computed at predefined locations along the geometric domains. This method offers an improved solution approach over other existing methods both in terms of computational speed and accuracy.
Original languageEnglish
Article number79
Number of pages15
JournalOil & Gas Science and Technology — Rev. IFP Energies nouvelles
Volume75
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Nov 2020

Keywords

  • Fuel Technology
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • General Chemical Engineering

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