Three-Phase Flow Zero-Net Liquid Holdup in Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCCⒸ)

An experimental and theoretical investigation is carried out on three-phase gas-oil-water flow zero-net liquid holdup (ZNLH) at the GLCC Operational Envelope (OPEN) for liquid carry-over (LCO) flow conditions. The acquired experimental data include both the ZNLH and the volume fraction of oil in the zero-net liquid phase. The ZNLH increases as the gas superficial velocity decreases (for the same watercut), as the data are acquired at the corresponding OPEN for this watercut (WC), whereby the liquid superficial velocity is increased at lower gas superficial velocities for onset of LCO. As the WC decreases, at the same superficial gas velocity, the ZNLH increases owing to the higher oil viscosity, which results in a higher drag force with the oil phase, and is the highest for 0% WC. The in situ volume fractions of oil and water in the zero-net liquid phase are the same as those at the GLCC inlet. This is owing to the presence of well mixed oil and water due to churning ZNLF condition in the GLCC upper part. The correlation developed by Karpurapu [Ka18a] for predicting ZNLH at the GLCC OPEN for LCO for two-phase gas-liquid flow (either gas-oil or gas-water flow) is extended to three-phase gas-oil-water flow. The modified correlation enables the prediction of the ZNLH and the corresponding oil volume fraction. The predictions of the extended correlation are compared with the acquired experimental data, showing very low discrepancies below 2.8%, attesting to the excellent prediction of the extended three-phase flow correlation. Uncertainty analysis for the experimental ZNLF gas and liquid superficial velocities shows 2% to 25% variations of the measured values.