A Two-Parameter Model for Water-Lubricated Pipeline Transportation of Unconventional Crudes

Sayeed Rushd, Ezz Ahmed, Shahriar Mahmud and Safdar Hossain Sk
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Sayeed Rushd: Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Faisal University, P.O. Box 380, Al Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia
Ezz Ahmed: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1H9, Canada
Shahriar Mahmud: Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
Safdar Hossain Sk: Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Faisal University, P.O. Box 380, Al Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-18

Abstract: Water-lubricated flow technology is an environmentally friendly and economically beneficial means of transporting unconventional viscous crudes. The current research was initiated to investigate an engineering model suitable to estimate the frictional pressure losses in water-lubricated pipelines as a function of design/operating parameters such as flow rates, water content, pipe size, and liquid properties. The available models were reviewed and critically assessed for this purpose. As the reliability of the existing models was not found to be satisfactory, a new two-parameter model was developed based on a phenomenological analysis of the dataset available in the open literature. The experimental conditions for these data included pipe sizes and oil viscosities in the ranges of 25–260 mm and 1220–26,500 mPa·s, respectively. A similar range of water equivalent Reynolds numbers corresponding to the investigated flow conditions was 10 3 –10 6 . The predictions of the new model agreed well with the experimental results. The respective values of the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) and the root mean square error (RMSE) were 0.90 and 0.46. The current model is more refined, easy-to-use, and adaptable compared to other existing models.

Keywords: core annular flow; water-assisted flow; lubricated pipe flow; statistical analysis; friction loss; wall fouling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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