Engineering Commons^™

An Investigation Into The Mechanisms Of Liquid Loading In Small-Diameter Vertical Pipes, Matt Malin

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Most gas wells produce either condensed water or liquid hydrocarbons, which over time build up in the wellbore and eventually kill the well – a phenomenon called “liquid loading”. Industry operators have used a criterion based on Stoke’s Law (the Turner criterion) for predicting when liquid loading will begin to occur. However, this approach does not account for multiphase flow effects in the wellbore, causing the Turner criterion to give inconsistent results when applied in the field. This research proposes a 4-stage flow behavior model for gas-dominant flow based on flow morphology changes observed during two experiments conducted in 2.0-inch …