Experimental study of electrical submersible pump performance under water-in-oil emulsion flow
Resumo
Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) systems are currently one of the best artificial lift methods in terms of production rate. The presence of complex fluid systems such as stabilized emulsions difficult its performance, causing the increase in required power and operational instabilities. Both the emulsions stability and the catastrophic phase inversion (CPI) are related to the droplet size distribution. This work aims to investigate how the droplet size distribution of water-in-oil flow within ESP systems is affected by rotational speed and flow rate. An ESP flow loop was designed to test emulsion flow with several rotational speeds and a range of flow rates that covers almost the entire performance curve. The droplet size distribution was evaluated by the Focused Beam Reflectance Measurement (FBRM) technic. The Sauter mean diameter shown a decreasing trend as the dimensionless flow rate increases.
Autores
Roberto Fernando Leuchtenberger, Jorge Luiz Biazussi, Natan Augusto Vieira Bulgarelli, William
Monte Verde, Antonio Carlos Bannwart.
