Avaliação do escoamento bifásico na presença de vazamento em oleodutos horizontais: modelagem e simulação.

Abstract

The transport of oil and their derivates is done, mostly, by pipeline. Leakage problems in oil / gas are still common despite the advanced technology in their construction. The industry have investing in technologies that allow a fasty detection of leak in order to make the pumps stop and close valves quickly, preventing, consequently, a environmental disaster, showing the importance of detection time of leak. The techniques available of leak detection vary from visual inspection to the use of computational techniques. In the present study the fluid dynamics of two-phase flow (oil – water) in horizontal oil pipelines with leak was evaluated. The equations of the conservation of mass and momentum are numerically solved using the ANSYS ® CFX with the aid of a structured mesh in the horizontal pipe with three holes of leaks. The Eulerian-Eulerian model was adopted with oil in continuous phase and water in dispersed phase. The physicochemical properties are constant. With profiles of pressure and volume fraction the influence of leakage flow on the single-phase (oil) and biphasic was evaluated (oil – water).