Experimental Study and Dimensional Analysis of Two-phase Well-Head Separator

The performance of two-phase (gas-liquid) separator was investigated in this paper. Two-phase (gas-liquid) separator was designed and manufactured using empirical correlations. The simplifying assumptions were used in these empirical equations, which their results of are less valuable. The effect of inlet diverter was neglected in designing, and the diameter of the liquid droplets assumed constant and predetermined. In these designing approaches, it was assumed that the liquid droplets were falling from the top of the two-phase (gas-liquid) separator, but in practice, the inlet diverter leads to separate the majority of liquid droplets because of momentum changing. The fundamentals of the turbulent multi-phase flow were not considered in these designing methods. The two-phase (air-water) flow loop was designed and manufactured. Air and water flows were mixed together at mixing section that is a 45° Tee and two-phase flow was formed. The two-phase (gas-liquid) flow had been considered as developed two-phase flow after passing 160 times greater than pipe diameter along pipe. Water and air flow rates were in ranges 0-2.5m3/h and 0-100m3/h, respectively. The maximum of operational pressure was 202650 Pascal at the ambient temperature. The liquid droplets trapper with 20 micron filter was mounted at gas outlet section of the two-phase separator to measure the volume fraction of the liquid phase in outlet gas flow and photography of liquid droplets in order to determine the diameter of the liquid droplets in outlet gas flow. Finally, the dimensionless groups were developed in order to model and investigate the two-phase (gas-liquid) separator performance. One of the most important achievements of this paper was providing the suitable platform to design well head (gas-liquid) two-phase separators based on the production conditions.