Simulation of the hydrodynamics in the onset of fouling for oil-water core-annular flow in a horizontal pipe

Core-annular flow is an efficient way of transporting viscous oil through a pipeline. A sharp increase in the pressure drop will occur when waves at water-oil interface touch pipe wall. Depending on and material physical properties, may adhere to wall leading fouling. Therefore, necessary requirement for onset fouling that hydrodynamics allow reach With respect problem statement, this study deals with finding hydrodynamic conditions under which core-annular becomes unstable The method followed resolve first-principle set equations describe hydrodynamics: Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) are solved using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) opensource package OpenFOAM. Simulations were carried out horizontal two diameters (10.5 21 mm), range imposed drops water holdup fractions (giving mixture velocity watercut as output). Most simulations viscosity ratio 1040 (but also variation was considered). For each value (or velocity) there critical below reaches This lower larger diameter mm, namely about 9.6%, than smaller 10.5 14% (for m = 1040). Wall touching occurs too low, but limit significantly higher 1.1 m/s, diameter, 0.3 m/s main conclusion state-of-art CFD approach capable simulating growth oil-water until they wall, condition