Chemical Engineering Transactions (Dec 2015)
The Research of Dynamic Simulation of Gas-Lift Well Unloading Process Based on OLGA
Abstract
Gas-lift unloading process is a transient process. Sufficiently considering the characteristics of the unloading transient process, this paper firstly built the new transient dynamic model of the gas-lift well unloading by using a commercial available dynamic multiphase flow simulator OLGA. In this new model, we designed four gas-lift valves and we used LEAK components with corresponding response curves which were obtained by the energy equation. And then the gas-lift unloading process was simulated by OLGA. Finally, the trend plots of the simulation results versus time were given and were analyzed in detail. The results showed that the gas-lift well reached the steady production after the gas-lift unloading process is finished. Based on the simulation results and the analysis, this paper showed that it is feasible to use OLGA modelling and simulating the gas-lift unloading process by using LEAK components with the corresponding GLV response curves. It also showed that we can use this method to verify the reasonability of the design parameters of the gas- lift well.