Pipe flow simulations
1.8 An example of what advanced pipe flow simulations can achieve can achieve
Ormen Lange is at the time of this writing (2008) the largest natural gas field under development in the Norwegian continental shelf. The field is situated 120 km northwest of Kristiansund, where seabed depths vary between 800 and 1,100 meters. The reservoir is approximately 40 km long and 8 km wide, and lies about 3,000 meters below sea level.
The Gas production is planned to become 60∙106 m3/day once full capacity is reached.
Using offshore separation of gas and liquids produced from the reservoir would have been a relatively conventional, but also expensive way to develop the project. It was concluded that offshore separation could be avoided and that the produced multi-phase flow could be sent to shore through pipelines directly. For this to be feasible, an
Using multiphase flow to send produced gas, oil and water to shore directly can be much cheaper than offshore separation.
advanced flow assurance solution was required.
Name Contact Comments
HYSYS Pipe Segment AspenTech aspentech.com
Not a very extensive model. AspenTech recommends other software for more advanced export pipelines, gathering systems or riser analysis.
HYSYS PIPESYS AspenTech aspentech.com
Licensed separately from the Hysys Process simulation package. More advanced than Hysys Pipe Segment and used for pipeline design and analysis.
PIPESIM Schlumberger
www.slb.com
One of the most well known and most used simulation packages for multi-phase pipe flow. Developed to integrate nicely Modelling Package, which also includes various well simulation software. Both 2 and 3-phase.
PROFES Aspen Tech
aspentech.com
Dynamic multi-phase models that can be implemented within the Aspen HYSYS environment. Both 2 and 3-phase. When the Profes Transient module is included, it can also perform transient analysis.
PIPEPHASE Simsci-Esscor (Now
owned by Invensys) www.simsci-esscor.com
Developed for simulation of complex networks of pipelines and wells. Both 2 multi-phase simulators. Comes with 2-multi-phase capabilities.
Two-phase liquid-gas isothermal flow.
Very cheap, comes with Shoham’s book (Shoham, 2006). Well documented in the book.
Table 1.7.2. Multi-phase steady-state pipe flow simulation software.
An integrated flow assurance system based on the OLGA multi-phase simulator has now been installed and is in daily use. As described by Aarvik et al., (2007), it includes five sub-systems: The Pipeline Management System, the Virtual Flow Meter System, the Production Choke Control System, the Monoethyleneglycol (MEG) Injection Monitoring and Control System, and the Formation Water Monitoring System. The underlying models start at the reservoir influx zone, and include detailed representations for the subsea wells and templates, production pipelines and on-shore slug catchers. The operator is given access to liquid monitoring data throughout the system and receives recommendations on such vital parameters as choke set points and MEG injection rates.
Another important feature is that the system serves as redundancy for the multi-phase flow meters. If and when the wet gas meters fail, useful flow data for each well is still going to be available from the estimates produced by the Virtual Flow Meter System.
The flow assurance system can run in four different execution modes: Real Time System Mode, Look-ahead Execution Mode, Trial Execution Mode, and Planning Execution Mode. This flexibility gives operators and planners a wide range of ways to improve their procedures and investigate „what if‟-scenarios.
Figure 1.8.1. Overview of Ormen Lange subsea production system. © Norsk Hydro.
Name Contact Comments
OLGA SPT Group
www.sptgroup.com
Currently the most used and also probably most well documented transient pipe flow simulation software. Handles both 2 and 3 phase flow. Integrates with the most used well and process simulators, in addition to most of the steady-state multi-phase pipe flow simulators.
TACITE Simsci-Esscor
www.simsci-esscor.com
Developed by Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP), but marketed by Simsci-Esscor as part of its PIPEPHASE package. Does not seem to have an open, documented API, and so can only be used together with PIPEPHASES’s Graphical User Interface.
The current version does not have full network capabilities. Both 2 and 3 phase.
SimSuite Pipeline Telvent telvent.com
2-phase simulator originating in the nuclear industry, but used for both nuclear industry), later integrated into AspenTech’s ProFES simulation package to bring transient capabilities to its
Table 1.7.3. Multi-phase transient pipe flow simulation software
After the gas has been processed onshore in Norway, it is exported to Britain through a 1,200 km subsea pipeline, the world‟s longest of its kind. Simulations have been used
extensively in every stage of that pipeline project, too, both for selecting main pipeline parameters well as for all the other purposes mentioned in figure 1.4.1.
References
Frankel, M. (1996, 2002): Facility Piping Systems Handbook. Second Edition, McGraw-Hill.
CO-LaN Consortium (2003): Documents 1.0 Documentation Set (freely available from colan.org).
OPC Foundation: Standards for open connectivity in industrial automation. (available from opcfoundation.org).
Ellul, I.R., Saether, G., Shippen, M.E. Goodreau, M.J. (2004): The Modelling of Multi-phase Systems under Steady-State and Transient Conditions – A Tutorial. Pipeline Simulation Interest Group PSIG 0403.
Liu, H. (2005): Pipeline Engineering. Lewis Publishers.
Shoham, O. (2006): Mechanistic Modeling of Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow in Pipes. Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Bryn, P., Jasinski, J.W, Soreide, F. (2007): Ormen Lange – Pipelines and Shipwrecks.
Universitetsforlaget.
Aarvik, A., Olsen, I., Vannes, K., Havre, K., Kroght, E., C. (2007): Design and development of the Ormen Lange flow assurance simulator, 13th International Conference on Multi-phase Production technology. p.47-64.
Bratland, O. (2008): Update on commercially available flow assurance software tools: What they can and cannot do and how reliable they are. 4th Asian Pipeline Conference &
Exposition 2008, Kuala Lumpur.
“Observe the motion of the surface of the water, which resembles that of hair, which has two motions, of which one is caused by the weight of the hair, the other by the direction of the curls; thus the water has eddying motions, one part of which is due to the eddying currents, the other to the random and reverse motion.”
Leonardo da Vinci on turbulence 1490 AD