Numerical simulation of flow through a wellbore for horizontal wells

Abstract

An understanding of flow in long horizontal wells can be an important aspect of reservoir management. In view of this, a comprehensive study was undertaken for a pipe with a diameter of 0.022 m and two perforations; one on the upper surface and the other on the lower surface with 0.006 m diameter and 180° phasing. The flow variations have been related to geometric and operating parameters. To better understand wellbore flow, Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD simulations (ANSYS CFX-13) have been used to simulate the flow at the wellbore to calculate the pressure drop, wall shear stress and turbulence kinetic energy etc. Using RNG k ε model to predict the flow behavior of turbulent pipe flow with the radial flow through perforations in the pipe wall. Comparison CFD results with the other researchers agree with them in relation to the behavior of wall shear stress, pressure drop etc. © 2013 WIT Press.