Three-phase flow

This paper is intended to describe recent progress on the development of the level-set method and IBM in the context of the advanced front-capturing and front-tracking methods. The paper is also intended to discuss the application of them for the 3-D DNS of two complex three-phase flow systems as described earlier. 

Note that the lubrication effect due to particle collisions in liquid is significant. The liquid layer dynamics pertaining to the lubrication effect was examined by Zenit and Hunt (1999). Zhang et al. (1999) used a Lattice-Boltzmann (LB) simulation to account for a close-range particle collision effect and developed a correction factor for the drag force for close-range collisions, or the lubrication effect. Such a term has been incorporated in a 2-D simulation based on the VOF method (Li et al., 1999). Equation (36) does not consider the lubrication effect. Clearly, this is a crude assumption. However, in the three-phase flow simulation, this study is intended to simulate only the dilute solids suspension condition (ep = 0.42-3.4%) with the bubble flow time of less than 1 s starting when bubbles are introduced to the solids suspension at a prescribed ep. 

S)-ibuprofen by means of ionic liquid flow within a microfluidic device. (B, Bottom) Photographs of the three-phase flow in the microchannel (a) center near the inlets of the microchannel, (b and c) arc of the microchannel, and (d) center near the outlets of the microchannel. Flow rates of the aqueous phase and the ionic liquid flow phase in (a-d) were 1.5 and 0.3 mL/h, respectively. (Reprinted from Huh, Y.S., Jun, Y.S., Hong, Y.K., Hong, W.H., and Kim, D.H., /. Mol. Catal. B, 43, 96-101, 2006. Copyright 2006 Elsevier. With permission.)... 

The object of well testing is to determine oil, qas, and water production rates and to establish correlations for production control and allocation. Unfortunately, well flow rates cannot be measured directly because of three phase flow. Consequently, a well rate must be measured by flowing the well individually to a test separator. The well testing process is completely automated and controlled from the HOC, requiring no action on the part of the GC operators during normal operation. Figure 3 shows a test separation train, typical of each of the three... 

In the absence of extreme turbulence, the average particle diameters formed by two or three phase flow in a pipeline are much larger than for other causes of entrainment. This usually allows good efficiency for... 

Vinegar, HJ. and Wellington, S.L. 1987. Tomographic imaging of three-phase flow experiments. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 58(1), 96-107. 

To further stabilize multiphase flow, the liquid-liquid interface can be created at the boundary formed at a constricted opening [427]. Moreover, guide structures (5 pm high) were fabricated in a microchannel (20 pm deep) to stabilize a three-phase flow, as shown in Figure 3.16. These structures were etched on quartz using... 

Keller AA, Blunt MJ, Roberts PV (1997) Micromodel observation of the role of oil layers in three-phase flow. Transp. Porous Media 26 277-297... 

Figure 3 Photographs of the multiphase laminar flow in the microchannels (a) confluence of water and m-xylene (b) phase separation part (c) confluence of HCI, organic phase, and NaOH and (d) three-phase flow.

In the latter (washing) area, the m-xylene phase containing the Co chelates and the coexisting metal chelates from the former (reaction and extraction) area is interposed between the HC1 and NaOH solutions, which were introduced through the other two inlets at a constant flow rate. Then a three-phase flow, HCl/m-xylene/NaOH, forms in the microchannel. The decomposition and removal of the coexisting metal chelates proceed along the microchannel in a similar manner as described above. Finally, the target chelates in m-xylene are detected downstream by TLM. 

The advantages of this approach compared with conventional methods are simplicity and omission of troublesome operations. The acid and alkali solutions cannot be used simultaneously in the conventional washing method, but this becomes possible by using three-phase flow in the microchannel. This chemical processing corresponds to the integration of eight MUOs on a microchip, two-phase formation, mixing and reaction, extraction, phase separation, three-phase... 

Local gas holdup has been measured as a function of radial and axial position for the flow conditions given in Table 2. The liquids used with the conductivity probe measurements were either water or aqueous ethanol (48 volume percent). For the three-phase flow measurements, the solid phase was narrow-sized glass beads. 

Transport in unsaturated porous media is sufficiently complex when only two fluid phases, air and water, are present flow becomes even more complicated when a third fluid phase, such as an immiscible organic fluid, is involved. This third fluid phase (NAPL) arises when liquid hydrocarbon fuels or solvents are spilled accidentally on the ground surface or when they leak from underground storage tanks. The resulting subsurface flow problem then involves three fluids, air, water, and NAPL, each having different interfacial tensions with each other, different viscosities, and different capillary interactions with the soil. The adequate description of three-phase flow is still a topic of active research, but a few qualitative generalizations can be drawn. 

Gas injection can also recover oil by reducing oil viscosity and residual oil saturation, even when miscibility is not achieved. Reduction in viscosity is more significant if the oil viscosity is large, and this process is attractive in viscous or semiviscous reservoirs, especially when accompanied by some other improved recovery mechanism. Residual oil saturation in three-phase flow in water-wet rock is very low (essentially zero), even at very low capillary numbers. Two main problems in such a process are the low relative permeabilities and sweep efficiencies. This process can be implemented in a highly dipping reservoir to take... 

Mani, V. Mohanty, K.K. Effect of spreading coefficient on three-phase flow in porous media. J. Coll. Interf. Sci. 1997, 187, 45-56. 

Mitra-Majumdar, D. Farouk, B. Shah, Y.T. Hydrodynamic modeling of three-phase flows through a vertical column. Chem. Eng. Sci. 1997, 52, 4485. 

Understanding three-phase flow dynamics is necessary for design of these reactors. A major aid is the classification scheme of Fan, depending on stream direction and degree of fluidization, expanded bed or transported bed. For example, a continuous liquid phase reactor, with gas and liquid inlets at the bottom and solids at the bottom, is classified as Mode E-I-a-1 if it operates as an expanded bed and Mode T-I-a-1 if all phases are flowing together, called transport. 

Multiphase flow theory is very well developed because of applications such as interfacial separations, petroleum production, and vadose-zone hydrology yet, it remains a mostly empirical science. This is a consequence of the complex physics of flow and because the parameters describing multiphase flow are highly sensitive to pore structure and interfacial configurations. Though three-phase flow is important in applications such as oil production and contaminant transport in the subsurface, we limit the following discussion to two-phase flow for simplicity. 

In general, when we discuss a parameter between two phases, we must define the conjugate phases. In any two-phase flow, it is obvious that both of the phases are conjugate phases. In a three-phase flow—for example, involving water, oil, and microemulsion three conjugates exist water-oil, water-microemulsion, and oil-microemulsion. There are also three interfacial tensions Owo, ctwm, and Oom. Each phase has two capillary numbers. Eor example, the oil phase has two capillary numbers (Nc)ow for the water phase displacing the oil phase and (Nc)om for the microemulsion phase displacing the oil phase. 

A similar discussion can be applied to (Nc)om and (Nc)mo, and (Nc)wm and (Nc)mw hi practice, a further approximation may be made. For instance, in measuring three-phase relative permeabilities, Delshad et al. (1987) used Nc = k(Ap/L)/o, where o was the average of the two IFTs Omo (IFT between the microemulsion and oil phases) and Omw (IFT between the microemulsion and water phases). In this case, only a single form of capillary number was calculated for the three-phase flow. 

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