Numerical Simulation of Superheated Steam Flow and Heat Transfer in a Balanced Steam Injection Flow Control Device

Abstract

Dual-string steam injection pipe is widely used in the production of superheated steam injection in heavy oil horizontal wells. Due to the nonuniform steam injection volume at the heel end and the existence of an interlayer and other factors in the reservoir, the distribution of steam cavity is not uniform, so it is necessary to control the flow of the steam injection well. Based on the basic principles of fluid mechanics and heat transfer, a three-phase nozzle outflow control device model is established in this paper. The steam flow and heat transfer law in the flow control device is numerically simulated, and the outflow dynamic law of horizontal well OCD completion in heavy oil reservoir is obtained. On this basis, the influence of OCD aperture parameters, steam injection pressure, and steam injection velocity on OCD throttling effect is studied. The results show that OCD has a good control effect on balancing pressure drop and improving steam injection uniformity. When the throttle aperture occupies 1/3 of the pipe diameter, the throttle effect is the best and the heat loss is low. Increasing the steam injection pressure can rapidly enhance the pressure reduction rate of the throttle hole. The throttling effect of increasing steam injection volume is not obvious, and the energy loss becomes higher. The study of this paper provides a reference for parameter optimization and prediction of steam distribution in the flow control device of horizontal wells.