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Oil-Water Two-Phase Flow Characteristics in Horizontal Pipeline – A

Comprehensive CFD Study

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 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
International Journal of Chemical, Molecular, Nuclear, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014

Oil-Water Two-Phase Flow Characteristics in

Horizontal Pipeline – A Comprehensive CFD Study
Anand B. Desamala, Ashok Kumar Dasamahapatra, Tapas K. Mandal

 investigation which includes fluid flow, design, performance

Abstract—In the present work, detailed analysis on flow determination and analysis. This improvement has been made
characteristics of a pair of immiscible liquids through horizontal due to easy accessibility and enormous increase in computer
pipeline is simulated by using ANSYS FLUENT 6.2. Moderately memory capacity and speed, resulting in a reduction in costs
viscous oil and water (viscosity ratio = 107, density ratio = 0.89 and
of simulation compared to experimental work.
interfacial tension = 0.024 N/m) have been taken as system fluids for
the study. Volume of Fluid (VOF) method has been employed by Many authors have used CFD simulation tool to estimate
assuming unsteady flow, immiscible liquid pair, constant liquid the hydrodynamics of two phase flow. For example, Huang et
properties, and co-axial flow. Meshing has been done using al. [1] have used k-ε turbulence model to study the effect of
GAMBIT. Quadrilateral mesh type has been chosen to account for eccentricity on friction factor and holdup for both laminar and
International Science Index Vol:8, No:4, 2014 waset.org/Publication/9999287

the surface tension effect more accurately. From the grid independent turbulent cases. They have noticed that, the friction factor
study, we have selected 47037 number of mesh elements for the
increases with eccentricity. Ko et al. [2] have found that, the
entire geometry. Simulation successfully predicts slug, stratified
wavy, stratified mixed and annular flow, except dispersion of oil in model prediction of pressure distribution and wave length is
water, and dispersion of water in oil. Simulation results are validated better than the K-ω turbulence model. They have used shear
with horizontal literature data and good conformity is observed. stress transport model to solve the kinetic energy and
Subsequently, we have simulated the hydrodynamics (viz., velocity dissipation equations of turbulent wavy core flow. Ghosh et
profile, area average pressure across a cross section and volume al. [3] have simulated the core annular down flow using
fraction profile along the radius) of stratified wavy and annular flow
Eulerian–Eulerian based VOF technique in FLUENT. Al-
at different phase velocities. The simulation results show that in the
annular flow, total pressure of the mixture decreases with increase in yaari et al. [4] have simulated stratified flow in horizontal
oil velocity due to the fact that pipe cross section is completely pipeline using RNG k-ε turbulence model. Recently, Kaushik
wetted with water. Simulated oil volume fraction shows maximum at et al. [5] have simulated the core annular flow through sudden
the centre in core annular flow, whereas, in stratified flow, maximum contraction and expansion using VOF technique. They have
value appears at upper side of the pipeline. These results are in validated their simulation results with the experimental results
accord with the actual flow configuration. Our findings could be and satisfactory match is observed.
useful in designing pipeline for transportation of crude oil.
In the present study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
simulation has been executed to investigate volume fraction
Keywords—CFD, Horizontal pipeline, Oil-water flow, VOF
technique. profile, area average pressure across a cross section and
velocity profile along the radius of different flow patterns of
I. INTRODUCTION viscous oil-water two-phase flow through a horizontal
pipeline. Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach including effect of
T WO-PHASE flow is an important phenomena appearing
in many industrial applications such as chemical plants
and nuclear power generation. However, to understand the
surface tension has been tried to adopt for prediction of flow
regimes.
phenomena is still difficult because of complex phenomena
II. MODEL DEVELOPMENT
underlying its behavior. The design parameters such as
pressure drop, holdup and flow regimes in a single phase flow The flow domain was constructed and meshed in
in conduits can be modeled easily. However the existence of GAMBITTM and the solver chosen was ANSYS FLUENTTM.
secondary phase such as water can lead to increase the The geometry and detailed dimensions of the concerned
complexity in hydrodynamics and creates different challenges conduit used in the present work is shown in Fig. 1 (a). The
in modeling the system. Knowledge of the hydrodynamics of geometry consists of a horizontal test section whose internal
such two-phase flow (liquid-liquid) is essential for the design diameter is 0.025 m and material of construction used for the
of extractor, mixture-settlers, transportation pipeline, pipeline pipe was Perspex. Oil and water were introduced into the pipe
networks, downstream separators, emulsifier etc. Over last ten through a T- junction at the entry section where water and oil
years, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has become enter into the pipe from the horizontal and vertical directions,
industrial simulation tool for an engineering system respectively. The geometry of the system can be assumed to
consist of four sections -water inlet, oil inlet, outlet of the pipe
and the test section. An immiscible pair of liquids is chosen
Anand B. Desamala, Ashok Kumar Dasamahapatra, Tapas K. Mandal are with coaxial flow assumed. An unsteady state solver has been
with the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati-
781039, India (phone: +91 9678425465; e-mail: a.desamala@iitg.ernet.in). employed for the computation purpose. Further, the

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 8(4) 2014 371 scholar.waset.org/1999.2/9999287
 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
International Journal of Chemical, Molecular, Nuclear, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014

simulations were run in 2-Dimensional mode. Fig. 1 (b) elements and this number is used throughout the simulation.
represents the meshed geometry. From the mesh independent Quadrilateral mesh geometry is selected for accounting the
study, system with 47037 cells is selected as optimum mesh surface tension effect more accurately.
International Science Index Vol:8, No:4, 2014 waset.org/Publication/9999287

Fig. 1 Geometry of horizontal pipe (a) Detailed dimensions of pipe (b) Meshing of pipe

The computation has been performed by assuming unsteady fluid in a cell is denoted as ‘αq’, the following three
flow, immiscible liquid pair, constant liquid properties, co- possibilities would arise:
axial flow in the pipe and a Tee junction (‘T’) as the entry • αq = 0: the cell does not contain fluid q.
section. In the present model, the two fluids share a well • αq= 1: the cell is occupied solely by fluid q.
defined interface. Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach for two • 0<αq< 1: the cell contains the interface
phase modeling has been selected in Fluent. VOF solves a Depending on the local value of αq, the density and
single set of momentum equations which is shared by both the viscosity in each cell are given by:
fluids. We briefly discuss the governing equations and the
treatment of the interface in the next section, details can be p (3)
ρ   ρq α q
obtained from Fluent user’s guide [6]. 1
p (4)
A. Governing Equations μ   αq μq
In VOF approach, the continuity equation can, therefore be 1
written as:
A separate continuity equation for ‘αq’ is considered as
(ρ ) (1) follows:
   ( U)   S q
t q
αq
 (U q  Δ)  Sαq (5)
where, ρ, U, t, S are density, velocity, time and mass source t
respectively. In the present case ‘S’ is zero.
The equation of momentum conservation can be expressed For each of the cells the following relationship is also valid:
as follows: p
(6)
 q  1
(U)
 (U U)  P [(U UT )]  ( g)  F (2)
1
t
where “p” is the number of phases. For the present two phase
The left hand side corresponds to convection and the first flow, p = 2.
term on the right hand side corresponds to pressure, while the B. Initial and Boundary Condition
other terms represent diffusion, gravitational body force and
In all cases, the flow has been initialized by filling up the
external body force (or source term as surface force)
pipe with water from the water inlet with a specified inlet
respectively.
superficial velocity. Oil is then introduced in the pipe. The
Generally, the Volume of Fluid solves the problem of
main steps followed during the simulation are:
updating the phase volume fraction field, provided the fixed
• 2-D pressure based segregated solver with implicit
grid, the phase volume fraction, and the velocity field are
formulation is selected as solver under unsteady state
available in a given time step. If the volume fraction of qth
condition.

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 8(4) 2014 372 scholar.waset.org/1999.2/9999287
 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
International Journal of Chemical, Molecular, Nuclear, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014

• Volume of Fluid (VOF) model is selected with number of validated with the experimental flow pattern map of Anjali et
phases q = 2. Explicit VOF scheme is selected so that the al. [8]. For this the simulation data are superimposed on the
discretization scheme for VOF changes to Geo- experimental flow pattern map of (Fig. 3). The scattered
Reconstruct (to get the surface tension effect). points in Fig. 3 shows different flow patterns reported by
• Test fluids are defined using material data base of Fluent Anjali et al. [8] and circled points shows the simulation data
and the properties are changed according to the present of present work. The validation shows good conformity of
work. slug, stratified wavy, stratified mixed, and annular flow.
• The operating pressure is set as atmospheric pressure
(default setting), and gravity is considered in Y-direction
as -9.81 m/s2.
• The inlet velocities of both the fluids are assumed to be
uniform and specified as follows:
 At x = 0, y = 0; Ux= Uwater and Uy = 0 (m/s)
 At x = 0.15 m and y = -0.0595 m; Uy = Uoil and Ux = 0
(m/s)
• The wall is assumed to be stationary and no slip condition
is imposed. A contact angle of 8.5o [7] is taken to account
for the wetting behavior of the wall with the fluids.
International Science Index Vol:8, No:4, 2014 waset.org/Publication/9999287

• Pressure outlet boundary is selected and the diffusion flux

variables at the exit are taken as zero.
• Time step size used in all simulations is 0.001 s.
TABLE I Fig. 2 Contours of oil phase at different velocities
DIFFERENT VELOCITIES USED FOR SIMULATION
Water velocity Oil velocity
SI.No. Simulation result
(USW), m/s (USO), m/s
1 0.13 0.024 Slug flow (S)
2 0.23 0.1 Stratified wavy flow (SW)
3 0.23 0.24 Stratified mixed flow (SM)
4 0.4 0.4 Annular flow (A)

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Simulations have been performed at different phase
velocities in a 2D-approach using VOF method. VOF method
successfully predicts the slug (S), stratified wavy (SW),
stratified mixed (SM) and annular flow (A). The velocity
ranges and corresponding simulation results (flow pattern) are
shown in Table I. These velocities (in Table I) are selected for
respective flow regimes of the horizontal flow reported by
Anjali et al. [8]. Fig. 2 (a) depicts that, at low phase velocities
(USW = 0.13 m/s and USO = 0.02 m/s) oil slugs appear with a
distinct liquid bridge between two consecutive slugs in
continuous water phase. The size of the slugs is comparable
with the internal diameter of the pipe. This is known as slug
flow (S). In stratified wavy flow (SW), oil and water are Fig. 3 Validation of present work with experimental map of Anjali et
al. [8]
separated with a wavy oil/water interface (See Fig. 2 (b)). By
increasing oil velocity (USO = 0.24 m/s) keeping water
IV. FLOW CHARACTERISTICS
velocity (USW = 0.23 m/s) constant, the wave ruptures to form
droplets at the interface. This results in the formation of three We have simulated the hydrodynamics (viz., volume
layers or mixed flow pattern with oil at top, water at bottom fraction profile, area average pressure across a cross section
and mixed layer comprising of oil and water droplets in the and velocity profile along the radius) of stratified wavy and
middle. The simulated result at this velocity is shown in Fig. 2 annular flow at different phase velocities. The schematic
(c). At moderate velocities of oil (USO = 0.4 m/s) and water representation of radial distribution of flow is shown in Fig. 4.
(USW = 0.4 m/s), oil flows at the center of the tube as a
continuous core and the water which flows as an annulus is in
contact with the pipe wall (Fig. 2 (d)). This flow pattern is
known as annular flow (A). These simulation data are

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 8(4) 2014 373 scholar.waset.org/1999.2/9999287
 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
International Journal of Chemical, Molecular, Nuclear, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014

volume fraction for stratified wavy and annular flow is shown

in Figs. 5 (a) and (b) respectively. In Fig. 5 (a), variation of oil
fraction by increasing oil velocity (USO = 0.2 to 0.3 m/s) by
keeping water velocity (USW = 0.23 m/s) constant is shown.
During stratified wavy flow, oil phase thickness increases as
oil velocity increases. It is clearly depicted in Fig. 5 (a).
During the annular flow, the oil phase flows in the center as
core and water phase is in complete contact with the pipe wall
(Fig. 2 (d)). This is confirmed from the radial distribution of
oil volume fraction which is shown in Fig. 5 (b).
Fig. 4 Schematic representation of radial distribution of flow
International Science Index Vol:8, No:4, 2014 waset.org/Publication/9999287

Fig. 6 Radial distribution of pressure (a) Stratified wavy flow (b)

Fig. 5 Radial distribution of oil volume fraction (a) Stratified wavy Annular flow
flow (b) Annular flow
B. Pressure
A. Volume Fraction Pressure drop in two-phase flow is a major design
It is one of the most important parameters used to parameter, governing the pumping power required to transport
characterize two-phase flows. It is the key physical value for two-phase fluids. Variation of pressure (mixture) along the
determining numerous other important parameters, such as the radial direction for stratified wavy and annular flow is shown
two-phase density and the two-phase viscosity, for obtaining in Fig. 6. The pressure will be maximum at the oil-water
the relative average velocity of the two phases, and is of interface due to slip between the phases in stratified flow. Fig.
fundamental importance in models for predicting flow pattern 6 (a) depicts the same showing maximum pressure at
transitions and pressure drop. The radial behavior of oil interface. Where as in annular flow, there are two oil-water

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 8(4) 2014 374 scholar.waset.org/1999.2/9999287
 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
International Journal of Chemical, Molecular, Nuclear, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014

interfaces because oil flows as core in center surrounded by and annular flow has been predicted well using VOF
water phase. At these two interfaces pressure will be high technique. The simulated result is also validated with the
compared to the oil phase in center. However, maximum experimental results. A good agreement has been observed for
pressure is noticed at upper portion inside the pipe wall. This these flow patterns. Other flow patterns like dispersion, either
prediction is clearly shown in Fig. 6 (b). oil in water and water in oil have not been predicted yet. The
flow characteristics (viz., volume fraction, pressure and
velocity profile) of stratified wavy and annular flow are
discussed. The simulation results show that in the annular
flow, total pressure of the mixture decreases with increase in
oil velocity due to the fact that pipe cross section is
completely wetted with water. Simulated oil volume fraction
shows maximum at the centre in core annular flow, whereas,
in stratified flow, maximum value appears at upper side of the
pipeline. These results are in accord with the actual flow
configuration. Our findings could be useful in designing
pipeline for transportation of crude oil.

REFERENCES
International Science Index Vol:8, No:4, 2014 waset.org/Publication/9999287

[1] A. Huang, C. Christodoulou, and D. D. Joseph, "Friction factor and hold

up studies for lubricated pipelining part -2: Laminar and k-ε models of
eccentric core flow," Int. J. Multiphase flow. vol. 20, pp. 481–491, 1994.
[2] T. Ko, H. G. Choi, R. Bai, and D. D. Joseph, "Finite element method
simulation of turbulent wavy core-annular flows using a k-Є turbulence
model method," Int. J. Multiphase Flow., vol. 28, pp. 1205–1222, 2002.
[3] S. Ghosh, G. Das, and P. K. Das, "Simulation of core annular downflow
through CFD–A comprehensive study," Chem. Eng. Process., vol. 49,
pp. 1222–1228, 2010.
[4] M. A. Al-Yaari, and B. F. Abu-Sharkh, "CFD prediction of stratified oil-
water flow in a horizontal pipe," Asian Trans. Eng., vol. 01, pp. 68–75,
2011.
[5] V. V. R. Kaushik, S. Ghosh, G. Das, and P. K. Das, "CFD simulation of
core annular flow through sudden contraction and expansion," J. Pet.
Sci. Eng., vol. 86-87, pp. 153–164, 2012.
[6] Fluent 6.3 User’s Guide, Fluent Inc., Lebanon, USA, 2006.
[7] A. B. Desamala, D. Anjali, V. Vinayak, G. B. Kumar, A. K.
Dasmahapatra, and T. K. Mandal, “CFD simulation and validation of
flow pattern transition boundaries during moderately viscous oil-water
two-phase flow through horizontal pipeline,” WASET J., vol. 73, pp.
1150–1155, Jan. 2013.
[8] D. Anjali, A. B. Desamala, A. K. Dasmahapatra, and T. K. Mandal,
"Flow pattern of viscous oil-water flow: Prediction by probabilistic
neural network (PNN) and validation with experimental data," Published
in the proceedings of 64th annual session of the IIChe, 2011, December
26–29, Bangalore, India.

Fig. 7 Radial distribution of velocity (a) Stratified wavy flow (b)

Annular flow

C. Velocity Profile
Radial distribution of mixture velocity of stratified wavy
and annular flow is shown in Fig. 7. In stratified wavy flow,
oil phase is in laminar and water phase is in turbulent flow.
Hence the mixture velocity is high for water phase and low for
oil phase (see Fig. 7 (a)). In annular flow, the velocity profile
looks like a parabola showing maximum velocity at the centre
(Which is occupied by oil phase). This is shown in Fig. 7 (b).

V. CONCLUSION
The attempts have been made to show the flow
characteristics of oil-water flow in horizontal pipeline. CFD
simulation has been done with the help of ANSYS
FLUENTTM software. Slug, stratified wavy, stratified mixed

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 8(4) 2014 375 scholar.waset.org/1999.2/9999287