Numerical study of high viscous oil-water multiphase flows in a horizontal pipe using the AIAD model.

In the present work, the hjgh viscous oil-water multiphase flows have been simulated using the Interfacial Area Density (AIAD) model, while the turbulence model was performed using the SST k-ω. The oil (Uso) and water (Usw) superficial velocities were set at 0.06 - 0.12 m/s and 0.23 - I m/s, respectively. The computational domain was adjusted on a horizontal pipe with 26mm in diameter and 1000mm in length for the primary pipe, while the oil and water inlets diameter were set to 12mm. A comparison between the volume of fluid (VOF) model and previous experimental was carried out. A comparison with experimental data showed relatively good agreement, both qualitative and quantitative. The AIAD model exhibited a better simulation result than the VOF model, whereby wavy and droplet were clearly revealed. The flow characteristics were obtained with satisfactory predictions in different flow regimes and the quantitative results of oil volume fraction were also investigated. Moreover, the numerical simulation appeared to be a reliable tool for predicting oil-water flow patterns on high viscous oil-water flow. These results show that the AIAD model run on commercial Fluent was able to investigate the practical case of oil-water flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]