Studies on Flow Characteristics of Gas–Liquid Multiphase Pumps Applied in Petroleum Transportation Engineering—A Review

Abstract

Flow and phase separation in gas–liquid multiphase pumps is easy to occur, which deteriorates their performance and mixed transportability. Many research achievements have been made in the experiment, CFD simulation and performance improvement of multiphase pumps. However, there are many challenges for the test technology, accurate numerical model development and gas–liquid flow control. This paper is mainly aimed at critically reviewing various technologies for experimental observation, flow calculation and analysis, and the optimization design of gas–liquid multiphase pumps. In this regard, the experimental results including the energy performance, flow pattern and bubble movement in the multiphase pump are presented in detail. Discussions on the turbulence model, multiphase flow model and bubble balance model are carried out for the flow prediction in such pumps. Various numerical results are presented, including energy performance, bubble distribution, vorticity, phase interaction and pressure fluctuation. Moreover, the flow control and optimization strategy are briefly introduced. Having carried out an extensive literature review of flow characteristics in multiphase pumps, the deficiencies of relevant fields and suggestions for future research direction are given.

Keywords

• multiphase pump
• multiphase flow model
• phase interaction
• energy performance
• gas–liquid flow characteristics
• optimization design