Journal of Applied Mathematics
Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 298346, 6 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/298346
Research Article

Numerical Simulation on Flow Field of Oilfield Three-Phase Separator

Yong-tu Liang,1 Sheng-qiu Zhao,1,2 Xia-xue Jiang,1 Xian-qi Jia,1 and Wang Li1

1Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Oil and Gas Distribution Technology, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
2Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Company Limited, Beijing 100007, China

Received 26 March 2013; Accepted 13 April 2013

Academic Editor: Bo Yu

Copyright © 2013 Yong-tu Liang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The conventional measurement method can no longer guarantee the accuracy requirement after the oilfield development entering high water cut stage, due to the water content and gas phase in the flow. In order to overcome the impact of measurement deviation the oilfield production management, the flow field of three-phase separator is studied numerically in this paper using Fluent 6.3.26. Taking into consideration the production situation of PetroChina Huabei Oilfield and the characteristics of three-phase separator, the effect of internal flow status as well as other factors such as varying flow rate, gas fraction, and water content on the separation efficiency is analyzed. The results show that the separation efficiencies under all operation conditions are larger than 95%, which satisfy the accuracy requirement and also provide the theoretical foundation for the application of three-phase separators at oilfields.