Abstract:
Oil and gases are produced through the transportation processes from the Oil/Gas wells. Therefore, in oil and gas industries transportation of oil and gases are the frequently occurring processes and the transportation of such fluids are assisted by the pipelines and fittings (chokes, valves, etc.). During the production of these hydrocarbons, in process solid particles also come along with the flow and pollute the extracted oil/gas and because of these solid particles several flow assurance problems come in to the picture, pressure drop, blockage of the valves and erosion are the major ones. To maintain and control the flow parameters at optimum level, quantifying such flow problems are important. But, performing and simulating real scenario experiments to study the effect of erosion in chokes and other complicated components like valves is difficult and extremely intensive in both technical and financial aspects. Therefore, in this thesis computational study by modelling multiphase flows using volume of fraction (VOF) approach has been presented on several configurations like, bean chokes, Christmas tree valve assembly, axial flow valve, etc. Each configuration is been studied with the aspect of quantifying the erosive damage at different working conditions. Along with the study of erosion inside the chokes and valves, choking of the axial flow valve during the closure has also been studied. This study helps Oil and Gas industries in optimizing the designs of choke and axial flow valves, choosing the erosion resistant material, coming up with improved erosive models and optimal operational parameters.