Hydrodynamic Modeling Of Oil-Water Stratified Smooth Two-Phase Turbulent Flow In Horizontal Circular Pipes

In the petrochemical industry, multiphase flow, including oil-water two-phase stratified laminar flow, is more common and can be easily obtained through mathematical analysis. However, there is limited mathematical analytical model for the simulation of oil-water flow under turbulent flow. This paper introduces a two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulation method to investigate the pressure gradient, flow field, and oil-water interface height of a pipeline cross-section of horizontal tube in an oil-water stratified smooth flow. Three Reynolds average N-S equation models (k-epsilon, k-omega, SST k-omega) are involved to simulate oil-water stratified smooth flow according to the finite volume method. The pressure gradient and oil-water interface height can be computed according to the given volume flow rate using the iteration method. The predicted result of oil-water interface height and velocity profile by the model fit well with several published experimental data, except that there is a large error in pressure gradient. The SST k-omega turbulence model appears higher accuracy for simulating oil-water two-phase stratified flow in a horizontal pipe.