Transient Flow Study of a Novel Three-Cylinder Double-Acting Reciprocating Multiphase Pump

Abstract

In petroleum industry, the stability of multiphase pumping is highly disturbed by the gas' presence with high content and variable working conditions. This paper is focused on studying the whole working cycle of the novel three-cylinder double-acting reciprocating multiphase pump. Based on the theoretical analysis, the method of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is adopted to simulate the oil–gas flow in reciprocating multiphase pump. The numerical methodology, involving multiphase model, dynamic grid technique and user defined functions (UDF), is used to deal with in the calculation. The transient flow characteristics in pump cavity are obtained, and the flow ripples of reciprocating multiphase pump are analyzed. Furthermore, the effects of different operating parameters, such as suction and discharge pressures, inlet gas volume fraction (GVFi) on the capacity, and stability of pump, are studied. The results could help to develop and optimize the high-efficiency multiphase pump system.