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Summary This paper presents electric-submersible-pump (ESP) -stage performance handling air and water in a laboratory setup. Experimental data gathered shows the effect of volumetric gas flow rate and intake-stage pressure for different rotational speeds. The presence of gas mildly deteriorates the stage performance at low volumetric gas flow rates. A sudden reduction in the stage-pressure increment is observed at this operation condition for a certain critical liquid flow rate, which marks the initiation of surging on the stage performance as mentioned by Lea and Bearden (1982). The surging initiates at lower liquid flow rates as the volumetric gas flow rate increases, which demonstrates the relationship between the surging initiation and liquid flow rate. It is also observed that the initiation of the surging moves toward lower liquid flow rates by increasing the rotational speed or the stage intake pressure. A two-phase stage-performance map was recently introduced, defining boundaries for five pump-performance regimes: homogenous, mild-performance deterioration, performance reverse slop, server performance deterioration, and nil performance (Gamboa and Prado 2011b). The current work shows that these performance regime boundaries are affected by rotational speed and intake-stage pressure.
- Europe (0.93)
- North America > United States > Oklahoma (0.29)
- Research Report > New Finding (1.00)
- Research Report > Experimental Study (0.64)
Summary Head deterioration observed in electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) under two-phase flow is mild until a sudden performance breakdown is observed in the pump head curve at a certain volumetric gas fraction. This critical condition is termed surging. Consequently, the head that the pump generates with two-phase flow depends on whether the stages operate under conditions before (mild performance deterioration) or after (severe performance deterioration) the surging point. The surging, for engineering purposes, can be predicted by published correlations, but the lack of a theoretical basis is a limiting factor for their application. Mechanistic models seem to be the proper alternative. However, the poor understanding of the physical mechanism that causes the surging hinders the development of such mechanistic models. This paper reviews some of these correlations and mechanistic models by comparing the correlation predictions against experimental data acquired in a closed loop with water and air using a commercial 24-stage ESP. The data cover a wide range of volumetric gas fractions, rotational speeds, and intake pressures. As a consequence of this analysis, a new correlation has been formulated. This correlation predicts the initiation of the surging as a function of rotational speed and fluid properties.
- North America > United States > Oklahoma (0.30)
- North America > United States > Texas (0.28)
- North America > United States > California (0.28)