Study of Flow Regime Transitions of Oil Water-Gas Mixtures In Horizontal Pipelines

The flow regime transitions for flow of oil-water-carbon dioxide mixtures in horizontal pipelines are presented. The experiments were carried out in a IOcm diameter plexiglass pipe. The flow regime transitions differ greatly from those for gas-liquid and oil-water two phase flow systems. Flow regime maps for oil-water-carbon dioxide are presented for various oil-water ratios and compared with the flow regime maps for water-carbon dioxide and oil-carbon dioxide two phase flows and the Taitel and Dukler model. The results confirm that the liquid compositions have a large effect on flow regime transitions and these are not predicted by most commonly used models.