Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Simulation of CO2-Hydrate Mixture in Tube

Abstract

The formation of CO2 hydrate during CO2 transportation presents a complex two-phase flow within tube. A two-dimensional CFD model for CO2 hydrate mixture flow in tube is derived based on the Eulerian multiphase flow modeling approach in which the two phases consist of CO2 gas and CO2 hydrate particles. A coupled Eulerian multiphase and nonisothermal flow model without phase-change is developed based on COMSOL Multiphysics built-in application modes. The model couples the mass, momentum, and energy equations for the two phases to solve the temperature and flow characteristics of the CO2 hydrate mixture flow in tube. CO2 hydrate particles are found to settle down during flow even under high velocity operation. The pressure drop increased linearly with inlet volume fraction from 1.29[Formula: see text]kPa for 0.1–5.2[Formula: see text]kPa for 0.5, and the related overall heat transfer coefficients of the CO2 hydrate mixture computed from the model ranged from 980 to 4000[Formula: see text]W/m2K with variation of CO2 hydrate volume fraction.