Session: 05-03-01 Deepsea Mining and Ocean Resources

Paper Number: 100624

100624 - Numerical Simulation on Gas–liquid–solid Three-Phase Flow by Gas-Lift Pumping System for Deep Sea Mining 

Subsea minerals have been found in the deep water within Japan’s exclusive economic zone. However, the development of subsea minerals has not reached the commercialization stage because many technical issues still need to be solved.

The gas-lift pumping system is one of the promising methods for subsea minerals transport. Since internal flow in pipes becomes three-phase flow for the gas-lift pumping systems, flow assurance for three-phase flow is important to design the systems for subsea mining.

It is necessary to figure out the liquid and solid flow rates at principal dimensions of the assumed production systems for designing and operating them.

Thus, we simulated gas–liquid two-phase and gas–liquid–solid three-phase flows for the gas-lift pumping systems based on one dimensional drift flux model with reference to the previous studies, and compared the calculated results with the experimental data obtained by the previous studies. The comparison showed that the calculated transient liquid flow rates were consistent with experimental data in gas–liquid two-phase flow for the pipe of 26 mm in internal diameter. The comparison also showed that the calculated steady liquid flow rates were consistent with experimental data in gas–liquid–solid three-phase flows for the pipes of 26 mm and 52 mm. Meanwhile, the deviations between calculated results and experimental data for the pipe of 300 mm were a little larger than those for the pipes of 26 mm and 52 mm. This could be because drift flux model was not valid for the large diameter pipe. Since calculated results were consistent with experimental data overall, we could simulate gas–liquid–solid three-phase flows by the present methods.

Presenting Author: Satoru Takano National Maritime Research Institute

Presenting Author Biography: 2012: Researcher, Ocean Engineering Department, National Maritime Research Institute, Japan
2019: Chief Researcher, Ocean Engineering Department, National Maritime Research Institute, Japan

Authors:

Satoru Takano National Maritime Research Institute
Sotaro Masanobu National Maritime Research Institute