Surface Wetting in Multiphase Pipe-Flow

The present study examines the quantity of surface wetting in a two-phase oil and water pipe flow. The study is performed by employing an Eulerian-Eulerian CFD model using the S-gamma droplet size distribution model within Star–CCM+. In the North Sea production of oil and gas, water-phase surface processes such as scale and corrosion account for more than 40–50% of operating expenses. The objective of the model is to investigate best practices for the prediction of phase distribution aimed at evaluating the degree of the wall in contact with the water phase (water-wetting). The model is validated by performing detailed numerical simulations corresponding to the experimental studies by Kumara et al. (2009). The comparison yields good agreement with the observed measurements with slight over-prediction of the dispersion rate but accurately describing liquid holdup. The surface wetting is then evaluated with its interdependence with liquid holdup and dispersion rate.