Non-isothermal Three-phase Flow of Petroleum, Gas and Water in T and Y Junctions

The occurrence of multiphase flow in the petroleum industry is very common in the transport, production and processing facilities of hydrocarbon from oil and gas fields. In the transport facilities, multiphase flow appears when the produced fluids are transferred for another areas through pipelines. In the production systems, multiphase flow happens, for example, when the fluids inside the reservoirs in deepwater moves until the surfaces through wells, pipelines and risers. Studies about multiphase flow majority are limited to two-phase flows such as: liquid-liquid, liquid-solid, liquid-gas and gas- solid, thus involving only two phases. Few works are related to three-phase flow especially through ”T” and ”Y” junctions. These junctions when properly used can contribute significantly in the process of phase separation of produced fluids. In this sense, the objective of this work is to study three-phase flow (water-gas-oil) in T and Y junctions including heat transfer. Simulations were realized usingthe software CFX-3D. Numerical results of the velocity, pressure, volume fraction and temperature distributions of the phases, and effect of the phase viscosities on the separation process are presented and analyzed.