Investigation of methane hydrate formation kinetics using machine learning and computational fluid dynamics tools
Hydrate blockage in oil and gas facilities can cause a significant economic impact in terms of deferred production and remediation costs, particularly in harsh conditions (e.g., deep water). Financial considerations and safety concerns have motivated most operating companies to apply the hydrate man...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Memorial University of Newfoundland
2022
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| Online Access: | https://research.library.mun.ca/15813/ https://research.library.mun.ca/15813/2/thesis.pdf |
| Summary: | Hydrate blockage in oil and gas facilities can cause a significant economic impact in terms of deferred production and remediation costs, particularly in harsh conditions (e.g., deep water). Financial considerations and safety concerns have motivated most operating companies to apply the hydrate management approach rather than the hydrate avoidance strategy. The hydrate management strategy requires a detailed understanding of how hydrates form, accumulate, deposit, and jam in pipeline systems. Despite all efforts that have been accomplished to find out the best method to manage and control hydrate formation in oil facilities, hydrate formation remains a challenge for the industry, and more research is needed to find reliable/effective methods for hydrate management. This research thesis starts with an extensive literature review, and the first series of simulation runs are performed to study methane hydrate formation in a jumper using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, named Star CCM+. The numerical model for the simulation phase is developed through considering transport phenomena equations, including conservation of mass, momentum, and energy in which mass transfer, hydrate reaction kinetics model, and heat of hydrate formation are incorporated in the multiphase flow equations in the form of source terms in the CFD software. An extensive sensitivity analysis is performed to study the influences of changes in the inlet fluid velocity, gas volume fraction, inlet temperature, and subcooling on the hydrate formation in the jumper. The results indicate that the developed CFD model can simulate methane hydrate formation in the jumper with high precision. The amount of hydrate decreases when the value of the liquid inlet velocity and gas inlet temperature parameters increases. In contrast, an increase in subcooling and gas volume fraction leads to more hydrate formation in the jumper. More hydrate can be observed close to the wall, where the temperature is low and subcooling has high values. In the next ... |
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