Investigation of sand transport in an undulated pipe using computational fluid dynamics.

Tebowei, Roland; Hossain, Mamdud; Islam, Sheikh Zahidul; Droubi, Mohamad Ghazi; Oluyemi, Gbenga

Abstract

A CFD model has been implemented to investigate the effects the pipe undulation on sand transport. Of particular interest of the present study is the sand deposition in small angled V-inclined bend relevant to oil and gas subsea flowlines where sand deposition could be a major problem. The model used is the two-fluid Eulerian-Eulerian model with the granular temperature to tackle the solid phase properties. A number of sub-models for tackling solid-fluid and fluid-fluid interaction has been incorporated in the modelling frame work to capture the transition of flow regimes. The simulation results show that the seemingly small angled V-inclined has significant impact on sand disposition compared to the horizontal section. Sand is deposited at the downstream section of the V-inclined pipe at much higher velocities compared to the minimum transport velocity of the horizontal pipe.

Citation

TEBOWEI, R., HOSSAIN, M., ISLAM, S.Z., DROUBI, M.G. and OLUYEMI, G. 2018. Investigation of sand transport in an undulated pipe using computational fluid dynamics. Journal of petroleum science and engineering [online], 162, pages 747-762. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2017.11.003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 2, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Nov 6, 2017
• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2018
• Deposit Date: Nov 3, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 7, 2018
• Journal: Journal of petroleum science and engineering
• Print ISSN: 0920-4105
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-4715
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 162
• Pages: 747-762
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2017.11.003
• Keywords: Sand deposition; Eulerian model; V-inclined
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2576