Three-Phase Oil-Air-Water Flow in Horizontal Pipes

The technology of oil-air-water mixed transportation had been applied in offshore pipelines,so it was very necessary to study the characteristic of three-phase flow.A series of oil-air-water three-phase flow experiments were carried out in a inner diameter of 25.7 mm,horizontal,stainless steel pipe,the focus was to study three-phase flow patterns and oil-water phase inversion.Air,tap water and white mineral oil(20 mPa·s viscosity,855 kg/m3 density at 20 °C) were used as test fluids.High speed photography was applied to determine flow patterns.Three-phase flow pattern maps on difference of the water volume fracture in the oil-water mixture(water-cut) were plotted,the effects of water-cut on three-phase flow patterns were investigated.The flow pattern maps developed were compared with a theoretical model,and it show that the model provides very close flow pattern predictions from experimental data at low water-cut.