Study on Growth and Change of Solid Particles with Water Flow in Oilfield Water-Injection Pipeline

Abstract

The solid particles in oilfield water-injection pipelines with water flow will continuously grow and change, and the oversized solid particles may block the pores of the formation and reduce the oilfield recovery efficiency. Therefore, the study on the growth and change to solid particles during transportation has become a question of interest in oilfields. However, there is little research on this question currently. Therefore, on the basis of the liquid-solid two-phase flow model and the particle population balance model, a growth and change model of solid particles in long-distance water-injection pipelines flowing along water was established in this paper in consideration of the injected water temperature drop along the path, as well as the growth, coalescence, breakage and deposition of particles. Comparison of the field test results indicated that the average error of the particle size distribution fitting degree calculated by the model is 6.9%, and the average error of median diameter is 4.1%. This model was used for analyzing the impact of the flow rate, temperature and median diameter of the united station outlet in a block oilfield of Shengli Oilfield on the solid particle size of the wellheads, and the critical flow rate, temperature and median diameter of the united station outlet were predicted when the median diameter at the wellheads meets the injection requirement (< 2 μm). The establishment of this model cannot only be used for the study on the growth and change to solid particles in water-injection pipelines flowing along water, but also provides a technical reference for the study on the growth and change to low-concentration solid particles accompanying flow in long-distance liquid/gas phase pipelines.

Keywords

• injected water
• long-distance pipeline
• liquid-solid two-phase flow model
• particle population balance model
• particle size distribution