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Francisco Exaltacao Trevisan (Doctor of Philosophy in Petroleum Engineering) Modeling and Visualization of Air and Viscous Liquid in Electrical Submersible Pump
Directed by Dr. Mauricio Prado
187 pp., Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations
(187 words)

Dynamic multiphase flow behavior inside an Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) has been studied experimentally and theoretically. A visualization prototype has been built based on original pump components and design with the intent of examining the Electrical Submersible Pump performance under two-phase flow of air and viscous liquid. The experimental loop built was capable of executing water-air as well as oil-air two-phase flow tests at different operational conditions and liquid viscosity.

A new experimental procedure was developed to investigate the effect of liquid viscosity on the centrifugal pump two-phase performance. High speed video footage was taken from the two-phase flow. Five flow patterns inside the impeller channels were identified and later compared with the data collected from differential pressure transducers. Pump performance was also investigated and viscous effects associated with pump surging conditions. The air injection method was later altered with the intent of reducing the bubble size, and its effects on performance were also analyzed. It was noted that the size of the bubbles entering the pump had significant effect on improving its two-phase performance.

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Last updated September 04, 2012