Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/76456
Type: Conference paper
Title: Two-phase flow and displacement in eccentric annuli: a CFD study
Author: Caruso, N.
Nguyen, Q.
Zhang, H.
Citation: Proceedings of CHEMECA 2012: quality of life through chemical engineering, held in Wellington, New Zealand, 23-26 September, 2012: pp.1775-1783
Publisher: Engineers Australia
Publisher Place: online
Issue Date: 2012
ISBN: 9781922107596
Conference Name: CHEMECA (2012 : Wellington NZ)
Statement of
Responsibility: 
N.A. Caruso, Q.D. Nguyen and H. Zhang
Abstract: Cementing operations are critical in the petroleum industry to isolate formations. Safety, environment impact and the economic success of a project depend on a successful cementing campaign. Cementing involves pumping spacer fluid to displace drilling mud, then cement in order to create the bond between the casing and formation. It is very rare that the casing is concentric in the borehole; therefore, it is almost always offset, usually to an unknown extent. It is for these reasons that a good knowledge of one fluid displacing another is needed, so that cementing operations may be run with greater certainty. The aim of this work is to build a functional 3-dimensional CFD model to capture the effects of non-Newtonian fluid displacements in eccentric annuli. Effects such as eccentricity of the well bore and rotation of the inner cylinder and fluid rheology may have large influences on the displacement efficiencies and flow phenomena. The model was run using ANSYS CFX 13.0 with fluid flow occurring under laminar conditions with negligible mixing between phases. It was found that the model can predict the effects of eccentricity and rotational flows on displacement efficiency and frictional pressure losses. The simulations confirm the experimental observations that rotation of the inner cylinder, even at low speeds, can significantly improve the displacement performance in highly eccentric annuli. Furthermore, for viscoplastic fluids, mild rotational flows lead to decreases in friction losses, which are strongly dependent of the annular eccentricity.
Keywords: Eccentrics and eccentricities
viscoplasticity
displacement
computational fluid dynamics
two-phase flow
Rights: © 2012 Engineers Australia
Published version: http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=867578016492399;res=IELENG
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Chemical Engineering publications

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