Flow tubing

A comfortable margin is maintained between the flowing tubing head pressure (downstream of compression) and the minimum pressure required for export, since the penalties for not meeting contract quantities can be severe. The decision not to install a fourth stage of compression in the above example is dictated by economics. During the final part of the pressure decline above, the field production is of course also declining. 

Routine production tests are performed, approximately once per month on each producing well, by diverting the production through the test separator on surface to measure the liquid flowrate, water cut, and gas production rate. The wellhead pressure (also called the flowing tubing head pressure, FTHP) is recorded at the time of the production test, and a plot of production rate against FTHP is made. The FTHP is also recorded continuously and used to estimate the well s production rate on a daily basis by reference to the FTHP vs production rate plot for the well. 

Figure A3.5.5. Rate constants for the reaction of Ar with O2 as a fiinction of temperature. CRESU stands for the French translation of reaction kinetics at supersonic conditions, SIFT is selected ion flow tube, FA is flowing afterglow and HTFA is high temperature flowing afterglow.

Flow tube studies of ion-moleeule reaetions date baek to the early 1960s, when the flowing afterglow was adapted to study ion kineties [85]. This represented a major advanee sinee the flowing afterglow is a thennal deviee under most situations and previous instruments were not. Smee that time, many iterations of the ion-moleeule flow tube have been developed and it is an extremely flexible method for studying ion-moleeule reaetions [86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91 and 92]. 

The basie flow system is eoneeptiially straightforward. A earrier gas, often helium, flows into the upstream end of a tube approximately 1 m long with a radius of several eentimetres. This buffer gas pressure is approximately 100 Pa. Ions are ereated either in the flow tube or injeeted from an external soiiree at the... 

Unstable species such as O, FI and N atoms, molecular radicals and vibrationally excited diatomics can be injected by passmg the appropriate gas tluough a microwave discharge. In a SIFT, the chemistry is usually straightforward since there is only one reactant ion and one neutral present in the flow tube. 

Another powerftil class of instmnientation used to study ion-molecule reactivity is trapping devices. Traps use electric and magnetic fields to store ions for an appreciable length of time, ranging from milliseconds to thousands of seconds. Generally, these devices mn at low pressure and thus can be used to obtain data at pressures well below the range in which flow tubes operate. 

In essence, a guided-ion beam is a double mass spectrometer. Figure A3.5.9 shows a schematic diagram of a griided-ion beam apparatus [104]. Ions are created and extracted from an ion source. Many types of source have been used and the choice depends upon the application. Combining a flow tube such as that described in this chapter has proven to be versatile and it ensures the ions are thennalized [105]. After extraction, the ions are mass selected. Many types of mass spectrometer can be used a Wien ExB filter is shown. The ions are then injected into an octopole ion trap. The octopole consists of eight parallel rods arranged on a circle. An RF... 

These days, remarkably high-resolution spectra are obtained for positive and negative ions using coaxial-beam spectrometers and various microwave and IR absorption teclmiques as described earlier. Infonnation on molecular bond strengths, isomeric fonus and energetics may also be obtained from the teclmiques discussed earlier. The kinetics of cluster-ion fonuation, as studied in a selected-ion flow tube (SIFT) or by high-pressure... 

Adams N G and Smith D 1976 The selected ion flow tube (SIFT) a technique for studying ion-neutral reactions Int J. Mass Spectrom. Ion Phys. 21 349... 

Smith D and Adams N G 1988 The selected ion flow tube (SIFT) studies of ion-neutral reactions Adv. At Mol. Phys. 24 1-49... 

A sehematie diagram of a SIFT apparatus is shown in figure Bl.7.12. The instrument eonsists of five basie regions, the ion soiiree, initial quadnipole mass filter, flow tube, seeond mass filter and finally the deteetor. The heart of the instrument is the flow tube, whieh is a steel tube approximately 1 m long and 10 em in diameter. The pressure in the flow tube is kept of the order of 0.5 Torr, resulting in earrier gas flow rates of... 

Figure Bl.7.12. A schematic diagram of a typical selected-ion flow (SIFT) apparatus. (Smith D and Adams N G 1988 The selected ion flow tube (SIFT) studies of ion-neutral reactions Advances in Atomic and Molecular Physics vol 24, ed D Bates and B Bederson p 4. Copyright Academic Press, Inc. Reproduced with pennission.)...

This volume eontains exeellent diseussions of the various methods for studying ion-moleeule reaotions in the gas phase, ineluding high pressure mass speotrometry, ion eyelotron resonanee speotrosoopy (and FT-ICR) and seleeted ion flow tube mass speotrometry. 

Many experimental methods may be distinguished by whether and how they achieve time resolution—directly or indirectly. Indirect methods avoid the requirement for fast detection methods, either by detemiining relative rates from product yields or by transfonuing from the time axis to another coordinate, for example the distance or flow rate in flow tubes. Direct methods include (laser-) flash photolysis [27], pulse radiolysis [28]... 

The time resolution of these methods is detennined by the time it takes to mitiate the reaction, for example the mixing time in flow tubes or the laser pulse width in flash photolysis, and by the time resolution of the detection. Relatively... 

Figure B2.5.1 schematically illustrates a typical flow-tube set-up. In gas-phase studies, it serves mainly two purposes. On the one hand it allows highly reactive shortlived reactant species, such as radicals or atoms, to be prepared at well-defined concentrations in an inert buffer gas. On the other hand, the flow replaces the time dependence, t, of a reaction by the dependence on the distance v from the point where the reactants are mixed by the simple transfomiation with the flow velocity vy...

Figure B2.5.1. Schematic representation of a typical flow tube set-up with moveable detection. Adapted from [HO].

The microscopic understanding of tire chemical reactivity of surfaces is of fundamental interest in chemical physics and important for heterogeneous catalysis. Cluster science provides a new approach for tire study of tire microscopic mechanisms of surface chemical reactivity [48]. Surfaces of small clusters possess a very rich variation of chemisoriDtion sites and are ideal models for bulk surfaces. Chemical reactivity of many transition-metal clusters has been investigated [49]. Transition-metal clusters are produced using laser vaporization, and tire chemical reactivity studies are carried out typically in a flow tube reactor in which tire clusters interact witli a reactant gas at a given temperature and pressure for a fixed period of time. Reaction products are measured at various pressures or temperatures and reaction rates are derived. It has been found tliat tire reactivity of small transition-metal clusters witli simple molecules such as H2 and NH can vary dramatically witli cluster size and stmcture [48, 49, M and 52]. 

Coriolis-Type Flow Meters. In CorioHs-type flow meters the fluid passes through a flow tube being electromechanically vibrated at its natural frequency. The fluid is first accelerated as it moves toward the point of peak vibration ampHtude and is then decelerated as it moves from the point of peak ampHtude. This creates a force on the inlet side of the tube in resistance to the acceleration and an opposite force on the outlet side resisting the deceleration. The result of these forces is an angular deflection or twisting of the flow tube that is directly proportional to the mass flow rate through the tube. 

Flow. The principal types of flow rate sensors are differential pressure, electromagnetic, vortex, and turbine. Of these, the first is the most popular. Orifice plates and Venturi-type flow tubes are the most popular differential pressure flow rate sensors. In these, the pressure differential measured across the sensor is proportional to the square of the volumetric flow rate. 

The proper installation of both orifice plates and Venturi-type flow tubes requires a length of straight pipe upstream and downstream of the sensor, ie, a meter mn. The pressure taps and connections for the differential pressure transmitter should be located so as to prevent the accumulation of vapor when measuring a Hquid and the accumulation of Hquid when measuring a vapor. For example, for a Hquid flow measurement in a horizontal pipe, the taps are located in the horizontal plane so that the differential pressure transmitter is either close-coupled or connected through downward sloping connections to allow any trapped vapor to escape. For a vapor measurement in a horizontal pipe, the taps should be located on the top of the pipe and have upward sloping connections to allow trapped Hquid to drain. 

A turbine flowmeter consists of a straight flow tube containing a turbine which is free to rotate on a shaft supported by one or more bearings and located on the centerline of the tube. Means are provided for magnetic detection of the rotational speed, which is proportional to the volumetric flow rate. Its use is generally restric ted to clean, noncorrosive fluids. Additional information on construction, operation, range, and accuracy can be obtained from Holzbock (Instruments for Measurement and Control, 2d ed., Reinhold, New York, 1962, pp. 155-162). For performance characteristics of these meters with liquids, see Shafer,y. Basic Eng., 84,471-485 (December 1962) or May, Chem. Eng., 78(5), 105-108 (1971) and for the effect of density and Reynolds number when used in gas flowmetering, see Lee and Evans, y. Basic Eng., 82, 1043-1057 (December 1965). 

Figure 2.3. A rigid piston drives a shock wave into compressible fluid in an imaginary flow tube with unit cross-sectional area. The shock wave moves at velocity U into fluid with initial state 0, which changes discontinuously to state 1 behind the shock wave. Particle velocity u is identical to the piston velocity.

Figure 2.12. A flow tube used to derive one-dimensional flow equations in Lagrangian coordinates. Internal surfaces are massless, impermeable partitions to aid in visualizing elements of fluid in Lagrangian coordinates.

The result of an actual pressure-drop versus flow measurement is shown in Figure 1.4.1. A separate flow tube was used and the measurement was made for the flow correlation of a catalyst to be charged to the older 5 -diameter reactor. 

The flow that is shown in these figures is the instrument flow measured as m/s in the measuring tube. Multiplied with the flow cross-section of 5.59 cm, this gives the volumetric flow in the 2.67-cm diameter flow tube. Using a different catalyst basket or measuring tube will change this ratio. The volumetric flow is the same in the basket. Because the small basket has a 3.15 cm diameter and 7.79 cm cross-section, the linear velocity will be 5.59/7.79 = 0.72 fraction of that in the tube. 

Dali Flow Tube - The advantage is this type of flowmeter is that it has a permanent head loss of only 5 % of the measured pressure differential. This is the lowest pressure drop of all orifice meter designs. Flow ratios as high as 1 10 (e.g., 1.0 to 10 kg/s) can be measured within + 2% of actual flow. Dali flow mbes are available in different materials and diameters up to 1500 mm. 

As the potential energy term has an essential meaning in hydromechanics, the static head is selected as a comparison quantity. When the energy equation (4.32) is divided by g and integrated, it gives the Bernoulli flow tube equation... 

---