Parameters in Multiphase Flowing of Natural Gas NGH Slurry via Vertical Pipe

Abstract EN

In recent years, the pipeline flowing of natural gas hydrate (hereinafter NGH) slurry has been a promising technique of multiphase flowing via pipe and that of crushed hydrate mixture slurry is also a key technique in solid fluidization mining method of nondiagenetic NGH reservoir below the seabed.

In this paper, by using similarity rules, a small-scale simulation model was established to shorten the calculation time.

The correctness of the simulation model has been verified through comparison with experiment.

Thereby, the distribution of velocity and volume fraction of each phase in the vertical pipe was obtained, and the prototype of vertical pipe was analyzed.

By study on the pipe resistance, the pressure drop of slurry, when flowing in vertical pipe, could be calculated as Δ P = ρ g h + 0.23 C ρ v 1.8 .

In the end, by adjusting volume fraction of particles in the mixture slurry, the relationship between the solid particles’ volume fraction and piezometric pressure drop was obtained.

When the optimal flow velocity of the slurry is 2 m/s and the ratio of NGH volume fraction to that of sand is 4 : 1, the optimal particle volume fraction ranges from 20% to 40%.