Numerical modeling study for the analysis of transient flow characteristics of gas, oil, water, and hydrate flow through a pipeline

This study presents the development of a four-phase, four-fluid flow pipeli ne simulator to describe simultaneous flow of gas, oil, water, and hydrate through a pipeline. The model has been equipped with a phase behavior model and hydrate equilibrium model to efficiently estimate thermodynamic and hy drodynamic properties of multicomponent mixtures. The governing equations a re formulated for describing the physical phenomena of mass, momentum, and heat transfers between the fluids, and the wall. The equations are solved b y utilizing the implicit finite-difference method on the staggered-grid sys tem which can properly describe the boundary conditions as well as phase ap pearance or disappearance. The developed pipeline simulator has been valida ted against the field data presented by a previous investigator, and their matches are found to be relatively excellent. The model also has been appli ed to a multi-component, four-phase flow system in order to examine the tra nsient flow characteristics in pipeline. Also, the potential and the locati on of hydrate formed in the pipeline have been studied by analyzing the flo w characteristics. As a result, it was found that a pipeline system flowing gas, oil, water, and hydrate could be optimized by systematically investig ating the hydrodynamic variables for the prevention of hydrate formation.