Numerical simulation of superheated steam flow in dual-tubing wells

Fengrui Sun1,2, Yuedong Yao1,2, Xiangfang Li1
1College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
2State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

Tóm tắt

In this paper, a novel model is presented to estimate the thermophysical properties of superheated steam (SHS) in dual-tubing wells (DTW). Firstly, a mathematical model comprised of the mass conservation equation, momentum balance equation and energy balance equation in the integral joint tubing (IJT) and annuli is proposed for concentric dual-tubing wells (CDTW), and in the main tubing (MT) and auxiliary tubing (AT) for parallel dual-tubing wells (PDTW). Secondly, the distribution of temperature, pressure and superheat degree along the wellbores are obtained by finite difference method on space and solved with iteration technique. Finally, based upon the validated model, sensitivity analysis of injection temperature is conducted. The results show that: (1) effect of injection temperature difference between MT and AT on temperature profiles is weak compared with that between the IJT and annuli. (2) Temperature gradient in IJT and annuli near wellhead is larger than that in MT and AT. (3) Superheat degree in both CDTW and PDTW increases with the increase in injection temperature in IJT and MT, respectively. (4) Superheat degree in IJT and MT decreases rapidly near wellhead, but the superheat degree in annuli and AT has an increase. (5) Thermal radiation and convection are the main ways of heat exchange between MT and AT. This paper gives engineers a novel insight into what is the flow and heat transfer characteristics of SHS in DTW, and provides an optimization method of injection parameters for oilfield.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Al-Bahlani A, Babadagli T (2009) SAGD laboratory experimental and numerical simulation studies: a review of current status and future issues. J Pet Sci Eng 68(3–4):135–150 Alves IN, Alhanati FJS, Shoham Ovadia (1992) A unified model for predicting flowing temperature distribution in wellbores and pipelines. SPE Prod Eng 7:363–367 Bahonar M, Azaiez J, Chen Z (2010) A semi-unsteady-state wellbore steam/water flow model for prediction of sandface conditions in steam injection wells. J Can Pet Technol 49(9):13–21 Bahonar M, Azaiez J, Chen Z (2011) Two issues in wellbore heat flow modelling along with the prediction of casing temperature in steam injection wells. J Can Pet Technol 50:43–63 Barua S (1991) Computation of heat transfer in wellbores with single and dual completions. In: Proceedings of the 66th annual technical conference and exhibition, Dallas, TX: SPE22868, pp 487–502 Beggs DH, Brill JP (1973) A study of two-phase flow in inclined pipes. J Pet Technol 25:607–617 Boberg TC, Lanz RB (1966) Calculation of the production rate of a thermally stimulated well. JPT 18:1613–1623 Brill JP (1987) Multiphase flow in wells. J Pet Technol 39:15–21 Brill JP, Mukherjee H (1999) Multiphase flow in wells, 1st edn. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Richardson Butler Roger M (1991) Thermal recovery of oil and bitumen. Prentice Hall, New Jersey Caetano EF (1985) Upward two-phase flow through an annulus. Dissertation, University of Tulsa Cheng WL, Huang YH, Lu DT et al (2011) A novel analytical transient heat-conduction time function for heat transfer in steam injection wells considering the wellbore heat capacity. Energy 36:4080–4088 Cheng WL, Huang YH, Liu N et al (2012) Estimation of geological formation thermal conductivity by using stochastic approximation method based on well-log temperature data. Energy 38:21–30 Cheng WL, Li TT, Nian YL et al (2013) Studies on geothermal power generation using abandoned oil wells. Energy 59:248–254 Cheng WL, Nian YL, Li TT et al (2014) A novel method for predicting spatial distribution of thermal properties and oil saturation of steam injection well from temperature logs. Energy 66:898–906 Chiu K, Thakur SC (1991) Modeling of wellbore heat losses in directional wells under changing injection conditions. In: Proceedings of the 66th annual technical conference and exhibition, Dallas, TX: SPE22870, pp 517–528 Dong XH, Liu HQ, Zhang ZX et al (2014) The flow and heat transfer characteristics of multi-thermal fluid in horizontal wellbore coupled with flow in heavy oil reservoirs. J Pet Sci Eng 122:56–68 Durrant AJ, Thambynayagam RKM (1986) Wellbore heat transmission and pressure drop for steam/water injection and geothermal production: a simple solution technique. SPE Reserv Eng 1:148–162 Ejiogu GC, Fiori M (1987) High-pressure saturated steam correlations. J Pet Technol 39:1585–1590 Fan ZF, He CG, Xu AZ (2016) Calculation model for on-way parameters of horizontal wellbore in the superheated steam injection. Pet Explor Dev 43(5):798–805 Farouq Ali SM (1981) A comprehensive wellbore steam/water flow model for steam injection and geothermal applications. SPE J 21:527–534 Griston S, Willhite GP (1987) Numerical model for evaluating concentric steam injection wells. In: Proceedings of the SPE California region meeting. Ventura, California: SPE, pp 127–39 Gu H, Cheng LS, Huang SJ, Du BJ, Hu CH (2014) Prediction of thermophysical properties of saturated steam and wellbore heat losses in concentric dual-tubing steam injection wells. Energy 75:419–429 Gu H, Cheng LS, Huang SJ et al (2015a) Thermophysical properties estimation and performance analysis of superheated-steam injection in horizontal wells considering phase change. Energy Convers Manag 99:119–131 Gu H, Cheng LS, Huang SJ et al (2015b) Steam injection for heavy oil recovery: modeling of wellbore heat efficiency and analysis of steam injection performance. Energy Convers Manag 97:166–177 Hasan AR (1995) Void fraction in bubbly and slug flow in downward vertical and inclined systems. SPE Prod Facil 10:172–176 Hasan AR, Kabir CS (1991) Heat transfer during two-phase flow in wellbores: part I-formation temperature. In: Proceedings of the 66th annual technical conference and exhibition, Dallas, TX: SPE22866, pp 469–478 Hasan AR, Kabir CS (1992) Two-phase flow in vertical and inclined annuli. Int J Multiph Flow 18(2):279–293 Hasan AR, Kabir CS (1994) Aspects of wellbore heat transfer during two-phase flow. SPE Prod Facil 9:211–216 Hasan AR, Kabir CS (2007) A simple model for annular two-phase flow in wellbores. SPE Prod Oper 22:168–175 Hasan AR, Kabir CS (2009) Modeling two-phase fluid and heat flows in geothermal wells. In: Proceedings of the 2009 SPE western regional meeting, San Jose, California, USA: SPE121351, pp 1–13 Hasan AR, Kabir CS (2012) Wellbore heat-transfer modeling and applications. J Pet Sci Eng 86–87:127–136 Hasan AR, Kabir CS, Sayarpour M (2007a) A basic approach to wellbore two-phase flow modeling. In: Proceedings of the 2007 SPE annual technical conference and exhibition, Anaheim, California, USA: SPE109868, pp 1–9 Hasan AR, Kabir CS, Wang X (2007b) A robust steady-state model for flowing-fluid temperature in complex wells. In: Proceedings of the 2007 SPE annual technical conference and exhibition, Anaheim, California, USA: SPE109765, pp 1–9 Hasan AR, Kabir CS, Sayarpour M (2010) Simplified two-phase flow modeling in wellbores. J Pet Sci Eng 72:42–49 Hight MA, Redus CL, Lehrmann JK (1992) Evaluation of dual-injection methods for multiple-zone steamflooding. SPE Reserv Eng 7:45–51 Holst PH, Flock DL (1966) Wellbore behaviour during saturated steam injection. J Can Pet Technol 5:184–193 Hou J, Chen YM (1997) An improved steam soak predictive model. Pet Explor Dev 24(3):53–56 Kaya AS, Sarica C, Brill JP (2001) Mechanistic modeling of two-phase flow in deviated wells. SPE Prod Facil 16:156–165 Lage ACVM, Time RW (2000) Mechanistic model for upward two-phase flow in annuli. In: Proceedings of the 2000 SPE annual technical conference and exhibition, Dallas, Texas: SPE63127, pp 1–11 Lage ACVM, Time RW (2002) An experimental and theoretical investigation of upward two-phase flow in annuli. SPE J 7:325–336 Liu HQ (2009) Optimized design and research on technology parameters of dualstring steam injection in horizontal well. Master thesis, China University of Petroleum, East China Marx JW, Langenheim RH (1959) Reservoir heating by hot fluid injection petroleum transactions. AIME 216:312–315 Miura K, Wang J (2012) An analytical model to predict cumulative steam/oil ratio (CSOR) in thermal recovery SAGD process. J Can Pet Technol 51(4):268–275 Orkiszewski J (1967) Predicting two-phase flow pressure drops in vertical pipe. J Pet Technol 19:829–838 Pacheco EF, Farouq Ali SM (1972) Wellbore heat losses and pressure drop in steam injection. J Pet Technol 24:139–144 Ramey HJ (1962) Wellbore heat transmission. J Pet Technol 14:427–435 Sagar R, Doty DR, Schmidt Z (1991) Predicting temperature profiles in a flowing well. SPE Prod Eng 6:441–448 Sandler J, Fowler G, Cheng K, Kovscek AR (2014) Solar-generated steam for oil recovery: reservoir simulation, economic analysis, and life cycle assessment. Energy Convers Manag 77:721–732 Satter A (1965) Heat losses during flow of steam down a wellbore. J Pet Technol 17:845–851 Sun FR, Li CL, Cheng LS, Huang SJ, Zou M, Sun Q, Wu XJ (2017a) Production performance analysis of heavy oil recovery by cyclic superheated steam stimulation. Energy 121:356–371 Sun FR, Yao YD, Li XF, Yu PL, Ding GY, Zou M (2017b) The flow and heat transfer characteristics of superheated steam in offshore wells and analysis of superheated steam performance. Comput Chem Eng 100:80–93 Sun FR, Yao YD, Li XF, Yu PL, Zhao L, Zhang Y (2017c) A numerical approach for obtaining type curves of superheated multi-component thermal fluid flow in concentric dual-tubing wells. Int J Heat Mass Transf 111:41–53 Sun FR, Yao YD, Li XF, Zhao L, Ding GY, Zhang XJ (2017d) The mass and heat transfer characteristics of superheated steam coupled with non-condensing gases in perforated horizontal wellbores. J Pet Sci Eng 156:460–467 Sun FR, Yao YD, Chen MQ, Li XF, Zhao L, Meng Y, Sun Z, Zhang T, Feng D (2017e) Performance analysis of superheated steam injection for heavy oil recovery and modeling of wellbore heat efficiency. Energy 125:795–804 Sun FR, Yao YD, Li XF, Zhao L (2017f) Type curve analysis of superheated steam flow in offshore horizontal wells. Int J Heat Mass Transf 113:850–860 Sun FR, Yao YD, Li XF, Tian J, Zhu GJ, Chen ZM (2017g) The flow and heat transfer characteristics of superheated steam in concentric dual-tubing wells. Int J Heat Mass Transf 115:1099–1108 Sun FR, Yao, Li XF, Li H, Chen G, Sun Z (2017h) A numerical study on the non-isothermal flow characteristics of superheated steam in ground pipelines and vertical wellbores. J Pet Sci Eng 159:68–75 Tortike WS, Farouq Ali SM (1989) Saturated-steam-properties functional correlations for fully implicit thermal reservoir simulation. SPE Reserv Eng 4:471–474 Vander Valk PA, Yang P (2007) Investigation of key parameters in SAGD wellbore design and operation. J Can Pet Technol 46(6):49–56 Wei SL (2015) Flow mechanism and production practice for the integral process of SAGD using horizontal well pairs. Ph.D. thesis, China University of Petroleum, Beijing Wei SL, Cheng LS, Huang WJ et al (2015) Flow behavior and heat transmission for steam injection wells considering the tubing buckling effect. Energy Technol 3:935–945 Willhite GP (1967) Over-all heat transfer coefficients in steam and hot water injection wells. J Pet Technol 19:607–615 Willman BT, Valleroy VV (1961) Laboratory studies of oil recovery by steam injection. JPT 222:681–696 Wu H, Wu XD, Wang Q, Zhu M, Fang Y (2011) A wellbore flow model of CO2 separate injection with concentric dual tubes and its affecting factors. Acta Pet Sin 32(4):722–727 Xu AZ, Mu LX, Fan ZF, Zhao L (2013) New findings on heatloss of superheated steam transmitted along the wellbore and heating enhancement in heavy oil reservoirs. In: The international petroleum technology conference held in Beijing, China, 26–28 Mar Yang Y, Huang SJ, Yang L et al (2016) A multistage theoretical model to characterize the liquid level during steam-assisted-gravity-drainage process. SPE J 22:1–12 Yu TT, Zhang HQ, Li MX et al (2010) A mechanistic model for gas/liquid flow in upward vertical annuli. SPE Prod Oper 25:285–295 Zhang JR, Zhao YY (1997) Manual for thermophysical properties of commonly-used materials in engineering, 1st edn. National Denfense Industry Press, Beijing Zhou TY, Cheng LS, He CB, Pang ZX, Zhou FJ (2010) Calculation model of on-way parameters and heating radius in a superheated steam injection wellbore. Pet Explor Dev 37(1):83–88