The Viscosity of Oil Influence on the Working Characteristics of Electric Submersible Pump under Variable Speed

Abstract

The viscosity of oil in different oil fields varies greatly, and the widespread use of polymer flooding also has a great impact on the viscosity of the oil. The submersible electric pump is one of the main mechanical oil recovery methods, and its working performance directly affects the production efficiency of the oil well. The application of the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method to study the effect of viscosity on the internal and external characteristics of a submersible electric pump with variable speed is an effective complement to the experimental method. The inner flow passages of the impeller and the vane of the pump (model is Q10.) were selected as a fluid domain for the CFD study. The results show that As the viscosity increases from 1 mPa•s to 215 mPa•s, the efficiency of the electric submersible pump decreases from 56.8% to 49.7, the power consumption increases from 142W to 163W, and the head decreases from 6.8m to 5.6m. This paper proposes the use of CFD technology to study the internal and external characteristics of electric submersible pumps under variable speed and variable viscosity conditions.