Flow & Process
10/02/2025
Flow Assurance simulations and studies
Increased costs related to deep-water findings requires efficient and cost-effective solutions on the field of Flow Assurance. Company enjoys long-time presence on the market with competitive, comprehensive offer of Flow Assurance services. The policy and methodology regarding application of various tools has been developed in prior to development and tuning of various simulation methodologies. Industry-standard algorithms for simulations of phenomena of multiphase flow, severe slugging, erosion and corrosion are implemented into our in-house developed Matlab/Simulink 1D hydraulics simulations environment, creating composite package for effective Flow Assurance simulations at cost competitive to comercially available software packages. Results of systems modeling can be coupled with transient, 3D CFD/FSI of local phenomena (like Joule-Thomson cooling etc.). Resuling multidomain, composite approach fluits in attractive offer for both downstream and upstream oil/gas simulations.
Particle erosion assessment of wellhead
Modeling of particle erosion of 7'' tubing hanger bent. The Customer develops new type of tubing hanger, allowing for various orientations of holes vs production bore outlet. Design is promising in terms of cost and complexity, but potentially may suffer for increased particle erosion rates. Simulation tools are useful for risk assessment; the goal of the project was to calculate the particle erosion rates during oil and gas production. We were responsible for CFD simulation of fluid flow through the bend with Eulerian phase sand particles tracking under various working fluids. While generation of hit pattern on simulation domain walls could be obtained within general CFD simulation cycle, the erosion itself is evaluated with semi-empirical erosion models, quantitizing particle velocity and hit angle into some erosion "effects". Considering potential consequences of erosion underestimation, erosion models are usually given by Codes and Standards, not always explicitly present in general-purpose CFD routines. Therefore one of biggest achievements of the project was integration of Ansys CFX with external libraries containing DNV and others erosion models.
