No abstract

Summary Edge/bottomwater cresting or even breaking into the wellbore has been a major factor affecting crude-oil production and has not been overcome so far. Aiming at this problem, this paper designs a new autonomous inflow-control device (AICD) profile control tool—swirling AICD—on the basis of the research of profile control tools used in the past. The AICD is mainly based on the principle of automatic phase separation, the splitting of three-way pipes, and the principle of vortex depressurization. Combined with the special flow path, the production of edge/bottomwater can be effectively restrained. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation and indoor flow experiments are used to prove the water-control function of the swirling AICD, to obtain the pressure and velocity distribution of fluid flow in the AICD, and to obtain the influencing factors and their influence rules. Based on these analyses, we established the swirling AICD mathematical model, which has laid a theoretical foundation for the application of swirling AICDs in wells.

No abstract

No abstract

Cyclone separation is an effective method for the treatment of oily wastewater from offshore oil production platforms. There is a lack of research on the impact of dispersion on the separation efficiency of current liquid–liquid separation hydrocyclones. A numerical simulation method was used to study the effect of the oil droplet characteristic parameters on the separation efficiency of a hydrocyclone oil removal device. An analysis of the trajectory of oil droplets revealed the oil removal mechanism of the hydrocyclone oil removal device: under the guidance of tangential velocity, the oil–water mixed fluid in the equipment generates different centrifugal forces due to the density difference, so oil and water adopt different flow paths to flow out. The effects of the particle diameter, velocity, and concentration of the inlet oil droplet on the separation efficiency were investigated. The droplet size had a positive effect on the separation efficiency, the oil concentration had a negative effect on the separation efficiency, and the speed of the oil drop was directly proportional to the separation efficiency within a certain range. These studies improved the basis for the efficient application of hydrocyclone oil removal devices.