IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v17y2024i8p1983-d1380561.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of Entrainment on the Liquid Film Behavior in Pipe Elbows

Author

Listed:
  • Zhenqiang Xie

    (CNOOC Research Institute, Beijing 100028, China
    College of Pipeline and Civil Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China)

  • Xuewen Cao

    (College of Pipeline and Civil Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China)

Abstract

Multiphase flow entrainment in natural gas engineering significantly influences the safety and efficiency of oil companies since it affects both the flow and the heat transfer process, but its mechanisms are not fully understood. Additionally, current computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodologies seldom consider entrainment behavioral changes in pipe elbows. In this article, a verified CFD method is used to study the entrainment behavior, mechanism, and changes in an elbow. The results show that droplet diameter in a developed annular flow follows a negative skewness distribution; as the radial distance (from the wall) increases, the fluctuation in the droplets becomes stronger, and the velocity difference between the gas and the droplets increases linearly. Turbulence bursts and vortices sucking near the wall jointly contribute to droplet entrainment. As the annular flow enters the elbow, the secondary flow promotes the film expansion to the upper and lower parts of the pipe. Droplets re-occur near the elbow exit intrados, and their size is much smaller than those in the upstream pipe. Vortices sucking under low gas velocity play an important role in this process. These findings provide guidelines for safety and flow assurance issues in natural gas production and transportation and bridge the gap between multiphase flow theory and natural gas engineering.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhenqiang Xie & Xuewen Cao, 2024. "Effect of Entrainment on the Liquid Film Behavior in Pipe Elbows," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:8:p:1983-:d:1380561
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/8/1983/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/8/1983/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:8:p:1983-:d:1380561. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.