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TUALP Abstract
 

Stéphane Rastoin
A Review of Multiphase Flow Through Chokes

Surface and subsurface chokes are widely used in the petroleum industry to maintain a fixed flow rate, to protect surface equipment, to prevent formation damage and to stabilize the flow. Accurate prediction of choke performance, i.e. the relationship between the pressure drop and the flow rate through a choke is therefore of great importance to a production engineer. In the field, one usually knows the flow through a choke and one of the pressures of the choke, i.e. the downstream or upstream pressure. Applying the proper algorithm will enable him to calculate the missing pressure.

A number of publications have addressed this problem while presenting yet another correlation or method for the prediction of choke performance. In absence of a comparison study of these several methods, an objective selection of a method for choke performance becomes very difficult for a practicing engineer.

In this paper, a literature survey is conducted on this subject, and differences between selected methods are pointed out. The performance of the selected methods against a large data bank is presented, and values for the discharge coefficient is calculated. Finally, an algorithm for the proper application of these methods is proposed.

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Last updated September 04, 2012