Summary
Hydrocyclones have been used for many years for removing solids from
continuous liquid media in the mineral, chemical, petroleum, and environmental
industries, among others. In oilfield applications, the solid/liquid
hydrocyclone (SLHC) has emerged as a sound technological and economical
alternative to conventional filtration systems where space, efficiency,
reliability, and continuous operations are critical. The SLHC is particularly
attractive in offshore, subsea water-injection applications and in other
oilfield operations. Early and effective removal of solids in pipelines and
process equipment help prevent erosion and premature failures that are costly
and pose serious health, safety, or environmental hazards.
To date, hydrocyclone design has relied primarily on empirical experience
and, most recently, costly and lengthy computational fluid dynamic (CFD)
simulations. The main objective of this work is the development of a
mechanistic model for practical, yet reliable, SLHC design. The proposed model
is capable of describing the hydrodynamic-flow phenomena inside the
hydrocyclone, enabling the prediction of continuous-phase-swirl intensity and
the velocity profile used in determining particle trajectories, and hence, the
grade separation efficiency curves. The model is validated against oilfield
experimental data run under a wide range of conditions and equipment
configurations. Model agreement with Global and Grade separation efficiency
data are 94.7% and 88.2%, respectively.
© 2010. Society of Petroleum Engineers
View full textPDF
(
1,346 KB
)
History
- Original manuscript received:
22 August 2009
- Meeting paper published:
5 October 2009
- Manuscript approved:
21 November 2009
- Published online:
13 September 2010
- Version of record:
13 September 2010
View Cart
