Authors : Nahid F. Shareef and Mohammed A. Abdulwahid
Abstract: In this study, the three-dimensional bubble flow in ahorizontal perforated wellbore has been investigated numerically. Unsteady numerical simulations of gas-liquid flow in the horizontal wellbore (of ID= 0.0254 m) have been carried out employing commercial CFD package Fluent 15.1 in conjunction with the VOF model. The turbulence in the continuous phase was described by employing k-g model. Air-water is used as a working fluid in the present work where the air enters from perforations as radial flow and water enter from the mainstream as axial flow. The aim of this study to investigate the effect of axial and radial flow on the behavior of bubble flow, total pressure drop, void fraction, and friction factor along the horizontal wellbore. The main results revealed that the bubble flow pattern can be seen obviously near the perforations, the friction pressure drop has more effect on total pressure drop compared with mixing pressure drop and acceleration pressure drop, and the void fraction ranges from minimum value to maximum value (0.04-0.526).
Nahid F. Shareef and Mohammed A. Abdulwahid, 2021. Numerical Study of Bubble Flow in Horizontal Perforated Wellbore. Research Journal of Applied Sciences, 16: 224-232.