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Raghavan S. Beltur (Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering)
Experimental Investigation of Two-Phase Flow Performance of Electrical Submersible Pump Stages
223 pp. – Chapter VII
Directed by Dr. Mauricio Prado
(153 words)

Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESP’s) performance deteriorates with presence of gas and deterioration varies with the amount of gas and the intake pressure.

The scope of this study is to conduct experimental and theoretical study on the two-phase behavior of ESP. The stage-wise data were acquired at 50 Hz; varying intake pressures up to 250-psig and gas rate up to 140000 scfd.

Data analysis revealed that surging occurs over the entire range of two-phase pumping. Also stage position has an important effect on performance as stage intake conditions gets better towards down stream stages.

Gas fraction at the stage intake condition is the most important factor on the twophase performance of pump stages. Up to 6% gas void fraction at the stage intake smaller degradation was observed. Beyond 6% gas, the stage performance shows higher degradation. A recovery of performance is observed at very low liquid flow rates for gas fraction higher than 6%.

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Last updated September 04, 2012