OTC 21417--Testing and Qualification of a New Multiphase Flow Simulator

摘要

This paper presents test cases, methodologies, and test results from the extensive testing and qualification program that have been conducted with LedaFlow?. This new transient multiphase flowline simulator has been built with focus on multiphase flow challenges in the oil and gas industry, and the resulting software includes both transient 1D and quasi 3D multiphase models. Development has been based both on existing and new large-scale experimental data from the SINTEF multiphase laboratory, taken over a nearly ten-year period. The focus of this paper is the transient 1D model. The transient three-phase 1D simulator offers new modeling capabilities as it is based on a model concept conserving mass for 9 fields (bubbles, droplets, and continuous fluids), using three momentum equations, and solving for the enthalpy and temperature of the three individual fluid zones. Improved closure relations have been built from a combination of new largescale multiphase flow experiments and sub-models which represents the distribution of droplets over the pipe cross section. Before introduction of this new tool to the industry, it was taken through an extensive testing and qualification program. The testing included comparison with experimental data (over 10,000 experimental points) and field data (over a dozen pipelines and wells, from wet-gas to oil), as well as comparisons to other commercially available software. Another part of the testing was focused on typical flow assurance user cases; transient simulations such as turn-down, shut-down, start-up and depressurization were run for a number of realistic field geometries. The new multiphase flow simulator reproduces experimental data and field data within defined acceptance criteria. This new multiphase flow software can be used as an alternative to other commercially available software and as a valuable new tool for flow assurance work for field development, operational studies and decision support.