Simulation of Hydrate Particles Aggregation and Deposition in Gas-Dominated Flow

作者：Zhiyuan Wang, Zeqin Li, Jihao Pei, Nan Ma, Jianbo Zhang, Baojiang Sun · 发表于：SPE Journal · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.2118/218384-pa · 被引用次数：14 · 研究领域：Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena、Spacecraft and Cryogenic Technologies、CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions

Summary Owing to low-temperature and high-pressure production environments, hydrate generation, accumulation, and deposition are prone to occur in deepwater oil and gas production wells and transportation pipelines, leading to pipeline blockage and threatening the safety of oil and gas production. To explore the aggregation mechanism and deposition law of hydrate particles in the main gas diversion pipeline, this study considered the adhesion effect of hydrate particles and established a hydrate particle aggregation and deposition model based on theory and experiments. The coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method (CFD-DEM) is used in the simulation calculation. The simulation results were compared with the relevant experimental results, and maximum and average errors of 9.48% and 4.56% were observed, respectively. It was found that the main factor affecting the aggregation of hydrates is the adhesion between particles. As the subcooling temperature increased, the aggregation and adhesion of the hydrate particles increased to varying degrees. The tangential adhesion force between the hydrate aggregate particles was significantly greater than the normal adhesion force, and the adhesion force between the particles gradually increased from the surface to the interior of the aggregates. The coordination number of the hydrate particles can quantitatively characterize the degree of aggregation and is affected by many factors, such as adhesion. By studying the par...