Gravity forces

In high permeability reservoirs, wells may produce dry oil for a limited time following a shut-in period, during which gravity forces have segregated oil and water near the wellbore. In fields with more production potential than production capacity, wells can be alternately produced and shut in (intermittentproduction) to reduce the field water cut. This may still be an attractive option at reduced rates very late in field life, if redundant facilities can be decommissioned to reduce operating costs. 

A single particle settling in a gravity field is subjected primarily to drag force, gravity force, Ta-g-, and buoyancy, which have to be in... 

Take-Up and Hold-Back. An elevator chain wears and elongates, and a belt stretches during service life. A chain also elongates when handling hot materials. Therefore, a take-up adjustment is needed to maintain tension between the head and foot shafts. A manually adjusted screw take-up that moves the tail shaft or head shaft or a self-adjusting weighted take-up that maintains a constant gravity force on the tail shaft may be used. 

Filtration frequently is accompanied by hindered or free gravitational sedimentation of solid particles. The directions of action of gravity force and filtrate motion may be cocurrent, countercurrent or cross current, depending on the orientation of the... 

When the resistance opposing fluid flow is small, gravity force effects fluid transport through a porous filter medium. Such a device is simply called a gravity filter. 

The most favorable filtration operation with cake formation is process whereby no clogging of the filter medium occurs. Such a process is observed at sufficiently high concentrations of solid particles in suspension. From a practical standpoint this concentration may conditionally be assumed to be in excess of 1% by volume. Filtration is frequently accompanied by hindered or free gravitational settling of solid particles. The relative directions of action between gravity force and filtrate... 

Figure 1. Direction of gravity force action and filtrate motion in filters A-cocurrent B-countercurrent C-crosscurrent solid arrow-direction of gravity force action dashed arrow- direction of filtrate motion 1-filter plate 2-cake 3-sludge 4-filtrate 5-clear liquid.

This resistance is balanced by the gravity force acting on a particle ... 

By comparing the gravity force acting on the particle (equation 24) with the resistance to liquid flow (equation 22), we obtain the average liquid velocity relative to the particles ... 

Body forces gravity force, centrifugal force, Coriolis force electromagnetic force. 

Combined Effect of Gravity Forces, Wind, and Mechanical Ventilation... 

The airflow rate Q, for each air leakage path is expressed with Eqs. (7.237), (7.242), and (7.243) using the infotmation on effective leakage area, CjA, and a pressure difference across the path. The total pressure acting on an opening from the outside is the sum of the pressure due to wind, gravity forces, and mechanical ventilation performance, and the static pressure inside the building results from Eq. (7.244). 

The combined effect of gravity forces, wind, and mechanical ventilation on the pressure across the opening is illustrated in Fig. 7.102. 

FIGURE 7.102 Pressure change along the building height due to the combined effect of wind and gravity forces, for the case of even temperature in the room volume... 

Gravitational settling The fallout of particulate matter from a gas stream due to the gravity forces being predominant over the flow velocity forces... 

The hydrocarbons in some altered form migrate from the source beds through other more porous and permeable beds to eventually accumulate in a rock called the reservoir rock. The initially altered (i.e., within the source beds) organic material may continue to alter as the material migrates. The hydrocarbon movement is probably the result of hydrodynamic pressure and gravity forces. As the source beds are compacted by increased burial pressures, the water and altered organic material are expelled. Water movement carries the hydrocarbons from the source beds into the reservoir, where the hydrocarbon establishes a position of equilibrium for the hydrodynamic and structural conditions [26-29]. 

Normal/auiiwg—basically dominated by tension and gravity forces results in the hanging tvall being displaced dotvnward relative to the footwall. 

Steam-liquid flow. Two-phase flow maps and heat transfer prediction methods which exist for vaporization in macro-channels and are inapplicable in micro-channels. Due to the predominance of surface tension over the gravity forces, the orientation of micro-channel has a negligible influence on the flow pattern. The models of convection boiling should correlate the frequencies, length and velocities of the bubbles and the coalescence processes, which control the flow pattern transitions, with the heat flux and the mass flux. The vapor bubble size distribution must be taken into account. 

For adiabatic, steady-state, and developed gas-liquid two-phase flow in a smooth pipe, assuming immiscible and incompressible phases, the essential variables are pu, pG, Pl, Pg, cr, dh, g, 9, Uls, and Uas, where subscripts L and G represent liquid and gas (or vapor), respectively, p is the density, p is the viscosity, cr is the surface tension, dh is the channel hydraulic diameter, 9 is the channel angle of inclination with respect to the gravity force, or the contact angle, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and Uls and Ugs are the liquid and gas superficial velocities, respectively. The independent dimensionless parameters can be chosen as Ap/pu (where Ap = Pl-Pg), and... 

The present model takes into account how capillary, friction and gravity forces affect the flow development. The parameters which influence the flow mechanism are evaluated. In the frame of the quasi-one-dimensional model the theoretical description of the phenomena is based on the assumption of uniform parameter distribution over the cross-section of the liquid and vapor flows. With this approximation, the mass, thermal and momentum equations for the average parameters are used. These equations allow one to determine the velocity, pressure and temperature distributions along the capillary axis, the shape of the interface surface for various geometrical and regime parameters, as well as the influence of physical properties of the liquid and vapor, micro-channel size, initial temperature of the cooling liquid, wall heat flux and gravity on the flow and heat transfer characteristics. 

The quasi-one-dimensional model of flow in a heated micro-channel makes it possible to describe the fundamental features of two-phase capillary flow due to the heating and evaporation of the liquid. The approach developed allows one to estimate the effects of capillary, inertia, frictional and gravity forces on the shape of the interface surface, as well as the on velocity and temperature distributions. The results of the numerical solution of the system of one-dimensional mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations, and a detailed analysis of the hydrodynamic and thermal characteristic of the flow in heated capillary with evaporative interface surface have been carried out. 

Below the system of quasi-one-dimensional equations considered in the previous chapter used to determine the position of meniscus in a heated micro-channel and estimate the effect of capillary, inertia and gravity forces on the velocity, temperature and pressure distributions within domains are filled with pure liquid or vapor. The possible regimes of flow corresponding to steady or unsteady motion of the liquid determine the physical properties of fluid and intensity of heat transfer. 

Two-phase flows in micro-channels with an evaporating meniscus, which separates the liquid and vapor regions, have been considered by Khrustalev and Faghri (1996) and Peles et al. (1998, 2000). In the latter a quasi-one-dimensional model was used to analyze the thermohydrodynamic characteristics of the flow in a heated capillary, with a distinct interface. This model takes into account the multi-stage character of the process, as well as the effect of capillary, friction and gravity forces on the flow development. The theoretical and experimental studies of the steady forced flow in a micro-channel with evaporating meniscus were carried out by Peles et al. (2001). These studies revealed the effect of a number of dimensionless parameters such as the Peclet and Jacob numbers, dimensionless heat transfer flux, etc., on the velocity, temperature and pressure distributions in the liquid and vapor regions. The structure of flow in heated micro-channels is determined by a number of factors the physical properties of fluid, its velocity, heat flux on... 

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