Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

Studies on water carrying of diesel oil in upward inclined pipes with

different inclination angle
Xiaoqin Song a, Yuexin Yang a, *, Tao Zhang a, Kejie Xiong a, Zhilin Wang b
a
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
b
School of Foreign Languages, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The characteristics of oil-water two phase flow in the case of water initially accumulated at low position in up-
Oil-water flow ward inclined pipelines were researched. A large scale experiment loop was conducted to analyse the flow
Upward inclined pipe characteristics by using a series of 50 mm transparent acrylic bends with different inclination angle (10
~ 45
at
Flow pattern
the interval of 5
). Five flow patterns were identified and a corresponding flow pattern map was established. The
Water carrying of oil
same situation was also simulated by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, and the results of
Inclination angle
simulation were validated by comparing with the experimental results. The impact of oil superficial velocity,
inclination angle and initial water volume on flow characteristics was further investigated. The results indicate
that the backflow effect in water phase is the major factor that causes water accumulation at the bottom of the
pipe. The initial residual water volume has no influence on the oil-water flow pattern and the water-carrying
capacity of oil. The lower flow rate and the higher inclination angle cause the decrease of water-carrying ca-
pacity of oil, resulting in the water accumulation at the low position and internal corrosion of product oil
pipelines.

1. Introduction
Product oil pipelines are frequently subjected to severe internal
corrosion, which may cause significant economic losses. The internal
corrosion occurs when water drops out of the hydrocarbon phase and
wets the pipe steel (Pouraria et al., 2016). The accumulated water also
causes microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) in the pipeline
(Song et al., 2016).
The water frequently accumulates at the low position of product oil
pipelines due to its higher density compared with oil. The water accu-
mulation is caused by the hydrostatic test and the oil flow which carries
minute amounts of water (Chen et al., 2011). Even with low water con-
tent in the oil, accumulation occurs at the lower spots of the pipe, in
particular during production shut-down. In oil-water two phase flow in
pipelines, determination of the locations where water-wetting occurs is
critical to predict the location for internal corrosion to occur (Hu and
Cheng, 2016). Therefore, flushing out of the accumulated water by
flowing oil is an effective and simple method to avoid internal corrosion
and other associated problems.
The situation of accumulated water is affected by many factors such
as fluid hydrodynamics, fluid physical properties, inclination angle and
flow pattern (Silva et al., 2006). This is a typical transient oil-water two-
phase flow problem which can be analysed by experiment (Ismail et al.,
2015a) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods (Walvekar
et al., 2009). The existence of various flow patterns and diverse gov-
erning mechanisms cause liquid–liquid flow to be a complex system and
highly problematical (Shi, 2001). In oil-water flow studies, different re-
searchers have analysed the flow patterns (Al-Wahaibi et al., 2012;
Hanafizadeh et al., 2015; Ismail et al., 2015b), pressure drop (Rodriguez
and Oliemans, 2006), inclination angle (Xu et al., 2016) and liquid
holdup (Pan et al., 2016; Soleimani et al., 2000). However, most of these
works concentrate on the oil and water mixing flow in pipes. There are
few investigations about the situation that accumulated water displace
by oil flow in upward inclined pipes.
In this study, the characteristics of oil-water two phase flow in the
case of water initially accumulated at low position in upward inclined
pipelines were researched. A large scale experiment loop was conducted
to analyse the flow characteristics by using a series of transparent acrylic
pipes with different inclination angle. The flow pattern was observed and
a corresponding flow pattern map was established. CFD simulations were
performed and the results of which were compared with the experi-
mental results. The impact of fluid velocity, inclination angle and initial

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: 359520004@qq.com (Y. Yang).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2017.07.076
Received 10 April 2017; Received in revised form 25 July 2017; Accepted 31 July 2017
Available online 3 August 2017
0920-4105/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
X. Song et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792

Fig. 1. The experimental setup. (a) Schematic description; (b) Picture.

Table 1 Table 3
Properties of the liquid at 20
C and 1 atm. Solution method of simulation.

Liquid Diesel oil Water Pressure-Velocity Coupling PISO

Transient Formulation First Order Implicit
3
Density (kg/m ) ρo ¼ 833.5 ρw ¼ 998.205 Time Step Size 0.005s
Viscosity (mPa⋅s) μo ¼ 3.575 μw ¼ 1.03 Number of Time Steps 40,000
Interfacial tension (mN/m) 17.95 Max Iterations 50
Spatial Discretization Gradient Least Square Cell Based
Pressure Body Force Weighted
Momentum Second Order Upwind
Table 2 Volume fraction Geo-Reconstruct
The relationship between Uso and Re. Turbulent Kinetic Energy Second Order Upwind
Oil superficial velocity (Uso) Reynolds numbers of the oil phase (Re) Turbulent Dissipation Rate Second Order Upwind

0.1 1165.7
0.15 1748.6
oil. The experimental setup consists of 5 parts, the detail of which is
0.2 2331.5
0.25 2914.3 as follows:
0.3 3497.2
0.35 4080.0 (a) Oil storage system

water volume on the water accumulation was further analysed.
2. Experimental setup
The experiments on flow characteristics of the accumulated water
flushed by flowing oil were performed in the large scale flow loop. The
overall length and width of the experimental setup are 10 m and 3 m,
respectively.
The experimental setup consists of oil tank (1), gate valve (2, 7, 10,
11, 14), centrifugal pump (3), pressure indicator (4), globe valve (5),
turbine flowmeter (6), injection valve (8), drain valve (9), acrylic bend
(12), chain hoist (13, 15) and rubber hose (16), shown in Fig. 1. Diesel oil
and water were used as test fluids. The physical properties are shown in
Table 1. Water was dyed in order to obviously distinguish it from diesel
Oil storage system is an oil tank (1) with 323.9 mm diameter and
1200 mm height. The bottom of the tank shapes as an inverted cone
connecting with a drain valve in order to discharge the sediment. The
tank with a 70 mm diameter hole on the top connects the rubber hose
(16) in order to circulate test fluids.
(b) Flow control system
The pipe is sequentially connected with gate valve (2), centrifugal
pump (3), pressure indicator (4), globe valve (5), and turbine flowmeter
(6), and those equipment forms the flow control system. Gate valve (2) is
used to control liquid level in the tank and prevent spilling of diesel oil.
Centrifugal pump (3) is used to supply energy to the fluid. Pressure in-
dicator (4) is utilized to measure pressure in the pipeline. The oil flow

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X. Song et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792

Fig. 2. Schematic description of the tube geometry.

rates are regulated by globe valve (5) and are measured by the calibrated
turbine flowmeter (6) with an accuracy of 0.2% in different experi-
mental condition.

(c) Water injection system

Water injection system consists of a main pipe and a bypass pipe.

There is a gate valve (7, 11) at each end of the main pipe respectively.
Water injection valve (8) and drain valve (9) are set in the middle section
of the main pipe. In order to simulate the oil-water initial state in the
pipeline, a given volume of diesel oil is discharged by drain valve (9) and
then the same volume of water is injected into the main pipe by water
injection valve (8). There is a gate valve (10) in the bypass pipe in order
to keep the fluid flow stable during water injecting.

Fig. 3. Schematic description of oil-water initial model. (d) Transparent observation section

After water injection system, the pipeline is connected to acrylic bend

Table 4 (12) with a certain upward inclination angle (α). Each end of the acrylic
Meshing strategies for the model. bend is connected to the seamless steel tube with 50 mm internal
Number The size of the unit grid Elements diameter (D). The diameter of the bend is Φ60  5 and the radiuses of
number curvature (R) is 5D (R ¼ 250 mm). The length of the horizontal and
Axial length of the Axial length of the Radial length
straight section (mm) elbow section (mm) (mm)
upward inclined section is 1 m. The range of upward inclination angle
varies between 10
~45
at the interval of 5
(sum 8).
No.1 2 1 1 237,302
No.2 2 0.5 1 322,032
No.3 1 1 0.5 458,205 (e) Supporting system
No.4 1 0.5 0.5 525,362
Each end of the acrylic bend is supported by a chain hoist (13, 15).
The height of the bend can be adjusted by the fixed pulley of the chain
hoist in order to adapt to different inclination angle.

Fig. 4. Flow patterns simulated by 4 grids at the same condition.

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X. Song et al.
Fig. 5. Axial-velocity profile simulated by 4 grids at x ¼ 1 m cross section.
Fig. 6. Flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 10
.
During the test procedure, the temperature of the water and oil were
kept constant at the ambient condition (20
C) and atmospheric outlet
pressure. The water with 4 L volume was injected to the pipe and carried
to the elbow of the acrylic bend by flowing oil at low flow rate. Then the
superficial velocity of oil (Uso) increased from the initial 0.1 m/s at a
gradient of 0.05 m/s. The relationship between oil superficial velocity
(Uso) and Reynolds numbers of the oil phase (Re) is shown in Table 2. The
experimental phenomenon was observed in the transparent test section.
3. Modeling
The accumulated water flushed by oil flow in upward pipeline was
investigated by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver
(FLUENT 16.0). The VOF model in FLUENT is widely used to simulate the
liquid-liquid two phase flow (Xu et al., 2012). A single set of momentum
equations can be solved and the volume fraction of each of the fluids can
be tracked throughout the computational domain by the VOF model. The
fluid flow is considered as the transient two phase flow, and the effect of
temperature fluctuations on the fluid flow is negligible (Desamala et al.,
2014). The VOF model is utilized to deal with such a problem with the
standard k-epsilon turbulence model. The effect of superficial tension on
two phase flow is mainly considered in the VOF model. The continuum
surface tension (CSF) model is applied to transform the interfacial tension
into a force source (Brackbill et al., 1992). A series of 3D pipeline models
with the same condition of the experiment (D ¼ 50 mm, α ¼ 10
~ 45
at
the interval of 5
) were established.
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792
Fig. 7. Flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 15
.
3.1. Solution method
The physical properties of oil and water used in simulation are in
accordance with the test results given in Table 1. The oil phase is defined
as the primary phase, and the water phase is defined as the second-
ary phase.
The water carrying of oil two phase flow is a transition from stratified
flow to dispersed flow with the increase of inclination angle and super-
ficial velocity of oil. Theoretical research processes with the interface
instability based on the two phase flow. VOF approach was used for
tracking the oil-water interface (Mohammadi et al., 2012). The standard
k-epsilon turbulent model was used because the flow rate corresponded
to turbulent condition.
A pressure-based solver combined with implicit body force approach
was employed to simulate the flow phenomenon. The spatial dis-
cretization method consists of gradient, pressure momentum, volume
fraction, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent dissipation rate. The
detail of solution method for the simulation is shown in Table 3. The
initial water level is assumed as constant in the horizontal section, which
can be realized by Patch function in solution initialization.
The residual value of the calculated variables, namely mass, velocity
components, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent dissipation rate, can
be utilized to judge the convergence of simulation results. In the present
simulations, the numerical results were considered as converged if the
scaled absolute residual value of variables was lowered by six orders of
magnitude, while the difference of net mass flow rate at the inlet and
outlet is lower than 105 (Xu et al., 2016).
3.2. Tube geometry
The simulations were conducted by a 3D pipeline model consisting of
horizontal, elbow and upward inclined section with the D ¼ 50 mm,
R ¼ 250 mm, α ¼ 10
~45
(at the interval of 5
), which was the same as
the experimental setup. The length of horizontal and upward inclined
section is 1 m and 3 m respectively in order to avoid backflow in the
outlet of the pipeline. The tube geometry is shown in Fig. 2. Diesel oil and
water-liquid were used as the simulation fluids. The density, viscosity
X. Song et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792

Fig. 10. Flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 30
.

Fig. 8. Flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 20
.

and interfacial tension of simulation fluids were set as the same as the
experimental test results (Table 1). The tube geometry was performed
using ANSYS ICEM-CFD software.
The initial water level is determined by the amount of water injected
to the horizontal section in the experiments, shown in Fig. 3. The rela-
tionship between central angle of oil-water interface (θ), water holdup
(Hw) and injected water volume (V) is shown as following:
 
2h
θ ¼ 2 arccos 1  (1)
D

Fig. 11. Flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 35
.

Aw 12R2 jθj  12R2 sin θ θ  sin θ

Hw ¼ ¼ ¼ (2)
A πR2 2π

πHw LD2
V¼ (3)
4

where, D is the internal diameter (D ¼ 50 mm), h is the thickness of initial

water layer, Aw is the cross-sectional area occupied by water phase, A is
the total flow area of the pipe, R is the pipe radius given by R ¼ D/2, and L
is the length of the horizontal section.
Fig. 9. Flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 25
. In the experiment, the distance from water injection valve to the
experimental bend is 7 m and the amount of injecting water is 4 L. As a

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3.4. Grid independent study

A grid independent study was conducted to obtain a sufficient mesh

density as it was required to resolve an accurate flow (Alias et al., 2014).
A commercial software ANSYS ICEM-CFD was used to create the grid for
the pipeline model. The structured grid strategy was built in order to get
high quality grid. By O-Block method, the structured grid can be built in
regularity and uniform characteristics. Meanwhile, the probability of grid
distortion was decreased.
Rigorous grid independence tests have been performed for the model
with D ¼ 50 mm, α ¼ 30
and Uso ¼ 0.25 m/s. Four types of grids are
compared, shown in Table 4.
The simulated flow patterns using 4 types of grids are compared in
Fig. 4. The profile of oil-water interface in Fig. 4a and b has a great dif-
ference compared with it in Fig. 4c and d which is closed to the experi-
mental results.
Fig. 5 shows the axial-velocity profile simulated by 4 grids at x ¼ 1 m
section. The results are similar above the oil-water interface, while No.1
and No.2 are different from No.3 and No.4 below the oil-water interface.
Therefore, the simulation results of No.3 are similar to No.4 in flow
patterns and axial-velocity. The calculation speed of No.3 is faster than
No.4 due to the less grid number. Considering the calculation efficiency
and accuracy, the No.3 meshing strategy was selected in this work.
Fig. 12. Flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 40
.

4. Results and discussion

consequence, water holdup (Hw) and initial water level (h) calculated by
4.1. Experiment results
the Eqs. (1)–(3) is 0.29 and 0.02 m, respectively.

The characteristics of oil-water two phase flow were investigated

3.3. Boundary conditions
based on visual observation at the condition of D ¼ 50 mm, α ¼ 10
–45

at the interval of 5
, V ¼ 4 L. Flow patterns and distribution of the
For the simulation of two phase flow, three boundary conditions are
accumulated water were analysed by the change of oil superficial ve-
considered: (1) Velocity-inlet, (2) Pressure-outlet, (3) Wall. At the inlet of
locity (Uso) and inclination angel (α).
the model, oil superficial velocity and zero water volume fraction in the
direction perpendicular to the inlet cross section is used to represent the
4.1.1. α ¼ 10

incoming oil flow. At the outlet of the model, pressure condition is uti-
Fig. 6 shows the different flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 10
.
lized in order to prevent reverse flow from the outside of the model. At
The thickness of the accumulated water gradually increased at the hor-
the wall of the model, standard wall functions method is considered, it is
izontal section. Oil-water interface changed from smooth interface in the
assumed that the fluid is stagnant at the wall of pipe (Hancock and Bush,
horizontal section to wavy interface in the upward section, resulting in
2002). The mesh resolution is driven by the wall yþ and the value yþ is
flow pattern transition from stratified smooth flow (ST-S) to stratified
set to be between 30 and 300 for most majority of the calculations (Wang
wavy flow (SW). In order to focus on the main characteristics of the water
et al., 2012).

Fig. 13. Flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 45
. Fig. 14. Flow patterns of water carrying of oil in inclined upward pipes.

785
X. Song et al.
Fig. 15. Flow pattern map of water carrying of oil in inclined upward pipes.
Fig. 16. Comparison the results of simulation and experiment.
carrying of oil, only the flow pattern of upward pipe was adopted in the
figure. The thickness of the water layer gradually decreased and the oil-
water interface became unstable with the increase of flushing time.
Meanwhile, the flowing resistance of the water phase increased with the
increase of climbing distance. The thickness of water gradually decreased
with the increase of Uso. The whole water bodies divided into masses of
different size by the oil flow, then repeated combination and division
(Fig. 6c and d). As a result, the accumulated water was divided into two
Fig. 17. The profile of axial-velocity at x ¼ 1.2 m cross section.
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792
parts, most water was flushed away by the oil flow while the other
remained in the bottom of the horizontal pipe.
4.1.2. α ¼ 15

Fig. 7 shows the different flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 15
.
The flow pattern was mainly stratified flow, which was similar to the
results at α ¼ 10
. For Uso > 0.3 m/s (the Reynolds number of oil phase
increases to around 3500 at the transition), flow pattern transition from
SW to stratified flow with water droplets (ST&WD) was observed
(Fig. 7e). The gravity component of water increased with the increase of
inclination angle, as a consequence, carrying capacity of oil flow
decreased at the same flow rate. At the relatively high flow rate, water
droplets split off from the oil-water interface and then quickly dissolve
themselves into the water masses. Therefore, stable oil-water mixing
layer cannot be formed due to the slight turbulence degree.
Fig. 18. Oil distribution in the upward pipe for different Uso at α ¼ 10
.
X. Song et al.
Fig. 19. Contours of velocity in the upward pipe for different Uso at α ¼ 10
.
4.1.3. α ¼ 20
Fig. 13 shows the different flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 45
.
Fig. 8 shows the different flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 20
.
Water climbing distance was less than 0.8 m at Uso ¼ 0.1 m/s (Fig. 8a).
For Uso > 0.15 m/s (the Reynolds number of oil phase increases to around
1700 at the transition), flow pattern transition from SW to ST&WD
occurred, shown in Fig. 8b. It can be seen that water climbing distance
obviously decreased at low flow rate due to the further increase of up-
ward inclination angle. Water masses were unable to overcome the effect
of gravity, resulting in the limited of climbing distance. The backflow of
water phase occurred at the bottom of the pipe and then the vortex was
formed, which was the primary reason that accumulated water cannot be
carried by the oil flow in the upward pipelines.
4.1.4. α ¼ 25

Three flow patterns namely stratified flow with water droplets
(ST&WD), stratified flow with mixing at the interface (ST&MI) and
dispersion of water in oil flow (DW/O), were observed for different Uso at
α ¼ 25
(Fig. 9). Turbulence degree in the upward pipe performed
intensely at low flow velocity (Uso < 0.15 m/s, Re < 1749), resulting in
the initial flow pattern was ST&WD. Therefore, critical inclination angle
of flow pattern transition from SW to ST&WD was 25
. Water and oil
droplets penetrated into the other phase by the turbulence of oil-water
interface with the increase of flow rate and inclination angel, then a
stable mixing layer were formed. As a consequence, the ST&MI flow
pattern appeared (Fig. 9c). In this flow pattern, pipe flow was divided
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792
into three layers namely water, oil and mixing layer. The thickness of the
water layer in the upward pipeline decreased with the increase of flow
rate. With the further increase of velocity (Uso >0.35 m/s, Re > 4080),
water masses were cut to droplets then dissolved in the oil phase, and
flow pattern finally developed into DW/O (Fig. 9f).
4.1.5. α ¼ 30

Fig. 10 shows the different flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 30
.
ST&WD performed in the pipe at the low velocity (Uso ¼ 0.1 m/s,
Re ¼ 1166). Then the flow pattern transition to ST&MI occurred with the
increase of flow rate (Fig. 10b). Obvious oil-water interface disappeared
with the higher flow rate, resulting in the flow pattern transition from
ST&MI to DW/O (Fig. 10d). Water phase remained continuous at the
horizontal section. While at the upward section, oil was continuous phase
and water was cut into droplets becoming dispersed phase. Backflow
phenomenon was obviously observed in the bottom of upward pipe ac-
cording to the trajectory of water droplets.
4.1.6. α ¼ 35

Fig. 11 shows the different flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 35
.
The flow patterns were similar to the results at α ¼ 30
. The turbulence
degree of oil-water interface increased with the increase of inclination
angle, indicating that two phase flow characteristics in upward inclined
pipe were differ from those in horizontal pipe. Dispersed flow in hori-
zontal pipe was formed due to the difference superficial velocity of oil
and water, or the increase of turbulent kinetic energy. While dispersed
flow in upward inclined pipe was formed due to the instability of tur-
bulence in oil-water interface, which was enhanced by the backflow at
the bottom of the upward pipe caused by the gravity force.
4.1.7. α ¼ 40

Fig. 12 shows the different flow patterns for different Uso at α ¼ 40
.
ST&MI performed in the upward pipe for Uso > 0.1 m/s (Fig. 12a).
Therefore, critical inclination angle of flow pattern transition from
ST&WD to ST&MI was 40
. The flow pattern transition to DW/O was
observed for Uso > 0.2 m/s (the Reynolds number of oil phase increases to
around 2300 at the transition), shown in Fig. 12c.
4.1.8. α ¼ 45

The flow laws were similar to the situation at α ¼ 40
. ST&MI performed
in the upward pipe for Uso > 0.1 m/s (Fig. 13a). It can be seen that water
easily accumulated at the elbow. The water phase climbed the upward
pipe after accumulating to a certain thickness. At high inclination angle,
the interfacial turbulence degree of water phase was relatively high and
backflow performed intensely, resulting in the decrease of the water-
carrying capacity. DW/O flow pattern performed for Uso > 0.2 m/s,
shown in Fig. 13c (the Reynolds number of oil phase increases to around
2300 at the transition).
4.2. Flow pattern
Different flow patterns perform due to the different instability of oil-
water interface caused by the gravity force. The definition of the flow
pattern can be made by visual observation of the oil-water distribution in
the transparent section. Five flow patterns are identified according to the
experimental results.
(1) Stratified smooth flow (ST-S)
ST-S only performs at the horizontal pipe during the experiment. This
flow pattern occurs at relatively low oil and water flow rates (Abduvayt
et al., 2006). The two phases are separated by gravity, resulting in the
water phase flows at the bottom and the oil phase flows at the top of the
X. Song et al.
Fig. 20. The profile of the axial velocity and shear rate for different Uso at α ¼ 10
, x ¼ 1.4 m.
pipe with a smooth oil-water interface. The thickness of the accumulated
water gradually increases along the flow direction (Fig. 14a).
(2) Stratified wavy flow (SW)
SW appears at the upward pipe with the relatively low Uso. The two
fluids flow in separate layers at the top and the bottom of the pipe. The
different density and the gravity force cause the interface instability. The
waves formed on the interface is affected by the inclination
angle (Fig. 14a).
(3) Stratified flow with water droplets (ST&WD)
ST-WD appears at the upward pipe when the flow rate increases at SW
(Fig. 14b). Water droplets are observed in the oil phase close to the
interface with the increase of Uso and inclination angle. The amount of
droplets is moderate and the size varies from less than 1 cm up to 3 cm.
Stable oil-water mixing layer cannot be formed due to the slight turbu-
lence degree.
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792
(4) Stratified flow with mixing at the interface (ST&MI)
With the further increase of Uso and inclination angle, there are
distinct continuous layers of oil and water at the top and bottom of the
pipeline respectively, but a mixing layer of oil and water droplets exists in
the interface (Fig. 14c). The dynamic forces that tend to spread the
droplets throughout the pipe cross section are not large enough to
overcome the settling tendency of the counteracting gravity forces
(Kumara et al., 2009). Therefore, oil and water droplets remain close to
the interface. The thickness of the accumulated water decreases at the
bottom of the upward pipe with the increase of Uso due to the partial
water phase carried by oil flow.
(5) Dispersion of water in oil flow (DW/O)
Obviously oil-water mixing region disappears in the upward pipe at
high flow rate and inclination angle, as a consequence, the flow pattern
transition from stratified flow to dispersed flow is observed (Fig. 14d).
When the flow rate increases at ST&MI, water masses are cut to droplets
then dissolves in the oil phase, while no oil dissolves in water. There is
X. Song et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792

Fig. 21. Oil distribution of the model for different inclination angle.

the distinct water droplets backflow at the bottom of the pipe due to the degree of oil-water interface increases with the increase of flow rate. The
effect of the gravity force. DW/O flow pattern is observed for Re > 2500 and α > 25
.

(6) Flow pattern map

4.3. Model validation

The flow patterns of oil–water flow for each experimental condition

Fig. 16a shows the experimental results while Fig. 16b shows the
are presented in terms of flow pattern map using the Reynolds numbers
results of the oil-water flow pattern obtained in the transient simulation
of the oil phase, Re ¼ ρoUsoD/μo, versus inclination angle (α). Fig. 15
at the same conditions (D ¼ 50 mm, α ¼ 15
, h ¼ 20 mm, Uso ¼ 0.15 m/s).
shows the schematic representations of flow pattern map in the upward
It can be clearly seen that the simulation results are similar to experi-
pipe. When the oil superficial velocity is less than the critical velocity (i.e.
mental results in oil-water two phase flow patterns. The axial-velocity at
Uso < Uc), the accumulated water cannot be carried by oil flow at the low
x ¼ 1.2 m cross section is shown in Fig. 17. The negative axial-velocity at
section of pipe. With the increase of Uso and inclination angle, the tur-
the bottom of the upward pipe indicate the backflow phenomenon of the
bulence degree increases and the flow patterns change in the order of SW,
water phase. Therefore, the simulation results are found to be in quali-
ST&WD, ST&MI and DW/O. SW flow pattern is observed at low flow rate
tative good agreement with the observations of the experimental setup.
and inclination angle (α ¼ 10–20
). At low flow rate (Re ¼ 1000), flow
pattern transition from SW to ST&WD when the inclination angle exceeds
25
, is observed. Therefore, 25
is the critical angel for transition from 4.4. Impact of oil superficial velocity
SW to ST&WD. At low flow rate (Re ¼ 1000), the ST&MI flow pattern is
observed when the inclination angle over 40
, indicating that 40
is the In the model with D ¼ 50 mm, α ¼ 10
and h ¼ 20 mm (h/D ¼ 0.4),
critical angel for transition from ST&WD to ST&MI. The turbulence the oil-water flow pattern is investigated. Oil distribution and contours of
velocity in central symmetry plane in the upward pipe for different

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Fig. 22. Contours of velocity of the model for different inclination angle.

Table 5
Critical velocity for water carrying of oil at different inclination angle.

Uc Inclination angle (
)

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Experimental results (m/s) 0.101 0.191 0.211 0.252 0.271 0.286 0.322 0.352
Simulation results (m/s) 0.11 0.19 0.22 0.26 0.27 0.29 0.34 0.37
Error (%) 8.91 0.52 4.27 3.17 0.37 1.40 5.59 5.11

superficial velocity of oil (Uso ¼ 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 and 0.25 m/s) is shown in
Fig. 18 and Fig. 19, respectively.
The distribution of the volume fraction of oil at α ¼ 10
calculated by
simulation (Fig. 18) is similar to the experimental results at the same
condition (Fig. 6). It can be seen that the flow pattern is ST-S at the
horizontal section. The thickness of the accumulated water decreases
when the water phase climb to the upward section. The flow pattern
transition from ST-S to SW occurs when the turbulence of oil-water
interface performs intensely with the increase of flow rate. Water drop-
lets disperse to oil when the turbulence reach a certain degree.
All the superficial velocity of oil is positive value and the maximum
occurs above the oil-water interface. While distinct backflow appears
near the bottom of the pipe and the vortex appears in the water phase
(Fig. 19). The position of water vortex in contours of velocity map
(Fig. 19) is corresponding to the position of water peak in oil distribution
map (Fig. 18). With the increase of oil superficial velocity, water holdup
increases in the elbow due to the appearance of water backflow. There-
fore, the vortex appears and the water-carrying capacity decreases. The
transition of flow patterns is caused by the disturbance instability of oil-
water interface not the increase of turbulent kinetic energy of the
continuous phase, which is corresponding to the experimental results.
Hence, the primary cause that water cannot be carried by oil flow is the
backflow in the water phase. When the water-carrying capacity of oil is
higher than the effect of water backflow, i.e. the superficial velocity of oil

790
X. Song et al.
Fig. 23. Oil distribution of the model for different initial water level.
Fig. 24. Residual water volume and relative value.
(Uso) exceeds the critical velocity (Uc), water cannot accumulate at the
low section of the pipeline.
The axial velocity and shear rate in central symmetry plane for
different superficial velocity of oil (Uso ¼ 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 and 0.25 m/s) at
α ¼ 10
, x ¼ 1.4 m, h ¼ 20 mm are further analysed, shown in Fig. 20. It
can be clear seen that oil superficial velocity is higher than the water
superficial velocity. The maximal (negative) velocity of water backflow
appears at the middle position between the oil-water interface and the
bottom of the pipe. The maximal shear rate is at the interface, which
shows the shear exerted by the water on oil. Shear rate has no regularity
at the water phase when the vortex exists (Fig. 20a). While shear rate
decreases from upper to bottom of the wall without the vortex because oil
superficial velocity is higher than the critical velocity (Uc ¼ 0.11 m/s)
(Fig. 20b–d). Oil holdup varies from the thickness of water phase in pipe
flow, resulting in the change of shear rate and maximum value of oil
superficial velocity. Therefore, the water-carrying capacity of oil can be
791
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792
promoted with the increase of oil superficial velocity. The exists of
backflow and vortex complicate the flow field in pipeline.
A linear relationship between shear stress (τ) and shear rate ð_γ Þ can be
written as:
du
τ¼μ ¼ μ_γ (4)
dy
Therefore, the negative shear rate at the upper wall represents the
stress exerted by the oil flow. While the negative shear rate at the lower
wall represents the stress exerted by the water phase which flows back-
ward near the wall.
4.5. Impact of inclination angle
In the model with D ¼ 50 mm, α ¼ 10
–45
(at the interval of 5
),
h ¼ 20 mm (h/D ¼ 0.4), Uso ¼ 0.2 m/s, the oil-water flow pattern is
investigated. Oil distribution and contours of velocity in central sym-
metry plane of the model is shown in Fig. 21 and Fig. 22, respectively. It
can be clearly seen that all the oil distribution map (Fig. 21) is similar to
corresponding experimental results.
With the increase of inclination angle, the gravity component of water
increases while the carrying capacity of oil decreases. As a consequence,
critical superficial velocity of oil (Uc) increases with the increase of the
inclination angle, shown in Table 5. The turbulence of oil-water interface
increases with the increase of inclination angle. It can be clearly seen that
water droplets disperse in oil (Fig. 21e), indicating that inclination angle
has a great influence on the distribution of the volume fraction of oil and
water. The negative velocity not exists in the oil phase but in the water
phase, indicating that the backflow only exists in the water phase
(Fig. 22). When oil superficial velocity is higher than the critical velocity,
the vortex in the water phase cannot be formed.
4.6. Impact of initial water volume
In the model with D ¼ 50 mm, α ¼ 10
and Uso ¼ 0.2 m/s, the oil-
water flow pattern is investigated. Oil distribution in central symmetry
X. Song et al.
plane in the upward pipe for different initial water level (h ¼ 0.03, 0.025,
0.02, 0.015, 0.01 and 0.005 m) is shown in Fig. 23.
The initial water level represents different initial water volume,
which has no influence on the oil-water flow pattern. The flow pattern is
ST-S at the horizontal section and the thickness of water phase de-
creases when climb to the upward section. The flow pattern transition
from ST-S to SW occurs at the upward section. The amount of the
accumulated water increases with the increase of the initial water vol-
ume, while the relative value (the ratio of residual water volume to
initial value) almost remains the same, shown in Fig. 24. Under the
situation of other parameters being equal, oil phase always carries the
same ratio of the accumulated water, indicating that the water-carrying
capacity of oil has no relationship with the initial residual
water volume.
5. Conclusion
Severe internal corrosion occurred in product oil pipelines due to the
water accumulation at low position of the pipe. The situation of accu-
mulated water flushed by flowing oil was researched both experimentally
and numerically by using CFD method.
The experiments were conducted in a large loop with a series of
50 mm ID pipes with different inclination angle (10
~ 45
at the interval
of 5
). Flow phenomenon was investigated by the transparent acrylic
bend at different superficial velocity of oil (Uso). Five flow patterns-
stratified smooth flow (ST-S), stratified wavy flow (SW), stratified flow
with water droplets (ST&WD), stratified flow with mixing at the interface
(ST&MI), dispersion of water in oil flow (DW/O)-were identified at
different flow rate and inclination angle. Critical oil superficial velocity
(Uc) and flow pattern map were established according to the experi-
mental results. Critical inclination angle of flow pattern transition from
SW to ST&WD is 25
, while the angle of flow pattern transition from
ST&WD to ST&MI is 40
.
A 3D transient numerical model was used to simulate the water
carrying of oil at the same condition of the experiment. The VOF
model and standard k-epsilon turbulence model were presented in
simulation procedure. The simulation results were validated by
comparing with the experimental results observed in the transparent
section. The results indicate that the backflow effect in water phase is
the primary cause that water tend to accumulated at the bottom of
the pipe.
With the increase of inclination angle (α), the gravity component of
water increases. The interfacial turbulence degree of water phase is
relatively high and backflow performs intensely, resulting in the decrease
of the water-carrying capacity. Therefore, critical superficial velocity of
oil (Uc) increases with the increase of inclination angle.
With the increase of oil superficial velocity (Uso), the turbulence de-
gree of interface increases. When the oil superficial velocity exceeds the
critical velocity (i.e. Uso > Uc), the water-carrying capacity of diesel oil is
higher than the backflow effect of the water phase, thus water cannot
accumulate at the low section of pipe.
The initial residual water volume has no influence on the oil-water
flow pattern. The amount of the accumulated water increases with the
increase of the initial water volume, while the relative value almost re-
mains the same. The water-carrying capacity of oil has no relationship
with the initial water volume.
As a consequence, the higher inclination angle and the lower flow rate
cause the decrease of water-carrying capacity of oil, resulting in water
accumulation at the low position and internal corrosion of product
oil pipeline.
792
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 157 (2017) 780–792
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Project No. 51474183) and State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas
Reservoir Geology and Exploitation.
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