Learning Forum

[vmonteiro]

I would like to simulate a Pipeline Drying process, which is a standard operation in the oil and gas industry. The process works as follows:

The starting point is a pipe (usually quite long, ranging from 20 km to 200 km, with a diameter of around 0.5 m) containing an initial water film on the internal wall (typically a few millimeters thick).

At time = 0 s, air with a predefined humidity level (defined by its dew point) starts flowing inside the pipe.

During the process (which typically lasts several days, around 8–10 days), evaporation of the water film occurs.

By the end, the pipe is completely dry.

Simulation Objective:

Inputs: Pipe geometry, dew point level, flow velocity, and temperature boundary conditions.

Outputs: Evaluate film thickness as a function of time and space, and estimate the total evaporation time (i.e., the time required to remove all the water film).

For reference, here is a link with examples of the process:
https://epcmholdings.com/standard-methods-used-in-the-oil-and-gas-industry-for-pipeline-drying/

I have already attempted to simulate this using ANSYS Fluent, but it is clearly not the best approach, as the pipe length requires an extremely large mesh, even in 2D.

I believe a 1D approach would be more feasible.

I would like to understand how Ansys Thermal Desktop could handle this type of simulation.

I also have some doubts about whether Thermal Desktop can model film evaporation inside a tube and accurately account for boundary layer effects.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best regards,
Vinícius

[Doug Bell]

There are a couple of ways to handle this but this forum is not a good place to go into the details, which have been passed to you directly through email.

For others interested in this application, please reach out to your account manager, channel partner, or use Ansys Customer Support Space (https://customer.ansys.com), if you have access.