Drainage effect of internal vortex tool based on experiment and numerical simulation

ABSTRACT

The liquid loading at the bottom of horizontal gas well is a problem that has a significant influence on the productivity of gas well. Therefore, it is necessary to take some measures of drainage gas recovery to reduce liquid loading in wellbore and increase gas production. To evaluate the drainage effect of the internal vortex tool, which is a new drainage gas recovery tool, firstly, under the conditions of different water-gas ratios, a horizontal well laboratory simulation experiment device was used to simulate the flow state and liquid loading of the gas-liquid two-phase fluid in the wellbore before and after loading the internal vortex tool. The experimental results indicate that the internal vortex tool can effectively decrease wellbore liquid loading, improve wellbore fluid flow pattern and reduce production pressure drop. Secondly, the numerical simulation method is used to study the flow of gas-liquid two-phase and pressure drop amplitude under different gas and liquid flow conditions. Finally, the results of laboratory experiment were compared with numerical simulation, and it was found that the pressure drop amplitude error was between 6.18%~9.32%, both within 10%, which met the error requirements. It was proved that the application of internal vortex tool could effectively increase the productivity of gas wells.

KEYWORDS:

• Horizontal well
• internal vortex tool
• drainage gas recovery
• laboratory experiment
• numerical simulation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tianyue Guo

Guo Tianyue, female, 1997, a doctoral candidate in Northeast Petroleum University, majoring in petroleum and natural gas engineering.

Cheng Fu

Fu Cheng,  female, 1981, professor of northeast petroleum university, mainly engaged in oil and gas exploitation and drainage gas recovery technology research.

Bin Huang

Huang Bin, male,  1982, professor, doctoral supervisor in Northeast Petroleum University, mainly engaged in oil and gas exploitation and drainage gas recovery technology research.

Tingting Zhu

Zhu tingting, female, 1996, majoring in petroleum and natural gas engineering.

Qingyuan Li

Li Qingyuan, male, 1996, Graduate student  in Northeast Petroleum University,majoring in petroleum and natural gas engineering.

Hang Yang

Yang Hang, male, 1997, Graduate student  in Northeast Petroleum University,majoring in petroleum and natural gas engineering.

Wei Guo

Guo Wei, male, 1997, Graduate student  in Northeast Petroleum University,majoring in petroleum and natural gas engineering.