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Orifice Metering of Two Phase Flow

Flow of two-phase mixtures in a single pipeline is becoming more common. To determine the rates of fiow in such systems. The phases are separated first. This stUdy Dies to obtain a relationship between the orifice-meter differential reading and the ftow rates of the iDdividual phases.

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Mauricio Sanchez Bernal
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792 views7 pages

Orifice Metering of Two Phase Flow

Flow of two-phase mixtures in a single pipeline is becoming more common. To determine the rates of fiow in such systems. The phases are separated first. This stUdy Dies to obtain a relationship between the orifice-meter differential reading and the ftow rates of the iDdividual phases.

Uploaded by

Mauricio Sanchez Bernal
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Orifice Metering of Two-Phase Flow Louis Mamar, SPE-AIME, U. of Calgary Murray Nicholson, U. of Calgary Khalid Aziz, SPE-AIME, U. of Calgary G. A. Gregory, SPE-AIME. U. of Calgary Introduction ‘The flow of two-phase mixtures in a single pipeline is ‘becoming more common. To determine the rates of flow in such systems, the phases are separated first, and the flow rate of each phase is measured individually In many instances, we need to know the flow rates ‘without having to separate the phases. A typical example ‘would be when continuously (automatically) monitoring sour gas ficids, where retrograde condensation occurs ‘before measurement by an ofifice meter. Sometimes ‘existing installations, which were once producing dry 8s, now are producing in two-phase flow, and satisfac- tory interpretation of these orifice meter readings is desired. Another application of interest isthe determina tion of steam quality during the flow of wet steam when the total mass flow rate (boiler feed rate) is known, ‘This study ies to obtain a relationship between the orifice-meter differential reading and the flow rates of the individual phases, using air and oil asthe flowing fluids. Review of the Literature Most investigations into two-phase flow-rate measure- ‘ment with orifices have been concerned with the flow of wet steam. Occasionally, air/water systems were stud- ied. There are few papers relating to natural gas/oil flow. ‘All correlations presented inthe literanure are based on ‘the single-phase, orifice-meter equation, which may be ‘writen as reersermcons 20119025 (2 ae: toon of Pon Engen of At anks V (2) . wee a James,’ working with geothermal steam wells, used Eq. 1, but replaced the density with an effective two-phase mixture density. He obtained this density by raising the mass dryness fraction to the empirically determined power of 1.5. In another approach, Smith and Leang? used a “blockage factor” to modify the coefficient of discharge, K,, and expressed it as a function-of-dryness fraction ‘Smith and Leang” and Smith ef al.,® reviewed and evaluated several published correlations. ‘Murdock,* Bizoa,* and Chisholm and his cowork- es" took a different approsch from those men- tioned before. They related the two-phase pressure drop to that obtained by flowing the gas and liquid sep- arately. Murdock and Bizon assumed there was no interfacial shear between the gas and liquid phases (no slip model) and derived the relationship, Vopr ea + Se: se VaP, Var, We show in the Appendix that VAp./V3p, is ‘proportional to the liquid-to-gas ratio. When there is no liquid flowing, the liquid-to-gas ratio is zero, and must equal one. Eq. 2 then becomes equivalent to that reported by Wichert,'? Hw + rk. Ws Ws we B Several correlations for two-phase flow through orifice meters are reviewed and verified experimentally, using air and oil mixtures in a 2-in. (5.08-cm) orifice meter. A simple, empirically determined relationship is shown to be valid for a limited range of oillgas ratios when separator tests are possible. For predictive purposes, however. a more complex relationship is recommended. AUGUST 1579 95 Chisiolm®? accounted for the interfacial shear stress between the gas and liquid phase and obtained the relationship, pre = Ap, + KV app Abs + APL vee ee (8) This equation is obviously valid at the two limiting conditions of zero liquid flow and zero gas flow. However, inspection of Eqs. 2 and 3 (with a = 1) shows that these equations are valid at only one of these sondions — zero liquid mi; hey cannot be valid at zero gas rate unless b = b° = 1. Defining 1. cece eeeeeseeeeeves (the Lockhar-Martinelli parameter), we show in the ‘Appendix that, wbere the pressure drop across the orifice is small in relation to the static pressure (incompressible flow), -@ x=Vae y. cite © a, Me « liguid-to-gas ratio. Chisholm* gave the following relationships for K, ‘when the velocity ratio of the two phases, F, is assumed constant. al (Me 7 + oe see ee eee K #(%) F (5) o For X <1, F=(%)* - @ (si) For X > 1, Fe( Po y. SS © Drow ao) Chisholm’ has shown that the James, Murdock, and Bizon data all can be expressed adequately using Eq. 4. Because this equation accounts for interfacial shear between phases and also can represent a wide range of data effectively, including the limiting conditions of zero ‘gas and liquid rates, itis considered the most promising of the two-phase, orifice-meter correlations. Experimental Equipment and Procedure ‘Two-phase metering experiments were conducted using set of standard sharp-crested orifice piates mounted in a horizontal 5.250-cm (2.067-in.) meter run. The tests were performed in the U. of Calgary two-phase-flow laboratory. The inlet fluid streams consisted of com- pressed air and a light refined oil as tbe gas and liquid phases, respectively. A long [28.3-m (93-ft)] straight horizontal run of 5.1-cm (2-in.) ID smooth acrylic pipe was used to achieve, as closely as possible, an equilibrium two-phase flow at the meter inlet (Fig. 1) After exiting the meter run, the fow entered a gravity separator tank located 2 m (6.6 ft) downstream of the ‘orifice plate position. No straightening vanes were used to condition the flow upstream of the orifice plate Electronic pressure transducers were used to measure the differential pressure developed across the orifice flange taps, the downstream tap static pressure, and the recovery pressure (Fig. 2). A standard industrial Barton ‘gauge also was placed across the fange taps parallel to the transducers. The gas/liquid gravity separators shown ‘were used to maintain single-phase gas in the transducer lines and single-phase liquid in the Barton gauge lines. To obtain average measurements from the often fluctuating two-phase flow conditions, the various trans- ducer signals passed through electronic integration ‘circuits before they were recorded. The results presented here are based on these averaged quantities, gathered ‘over a period of several minutes for each set of flow conditions. ‘The inlet streams of oil and air were metered separately with calibrated rotameters or orifice meters (Gepending on the flow rate range) before being mixed together in a simple tee to produce the two-phase flow. ‘Temperature and pressure of the Suid stream entering the meter run were maintained in the range of 23 = 3*C (73 = SF) and 244 = 30 kPa (35 = 4 pia), re- spectively, for all tests conducted. At 23°C (73° F) the cil density and viscosity were Pe = 0.858 gem? (53.5 Ibmven ft) be = 6.71 mPas (6.71 cp) A toa of 251 two-phase nuns wire conducted using orifice plate sizes of 2.22, 2.540, 2.858, 3.175, 3.492 and 3.810 cm (0.875, 1.000, 1.125, 1.250, 1.375, and 1,500 in.). Some runs were taken using different orifice waren nn 7 ¥ Fig. 2-Location of preseyre transducers. JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY sizes, but with essentially the same flow rate conditions to observe any plate size effects directly. A wide range of flow rate combinations was studied. 0.05 < wz <5 kp/s (0.1 to 11 Ibm/sec) 5x 10-4

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