Combined Convection of Packer Fluid Flow between Vertical Parallel Plates

Packer fluid whose function is to prevent or tremendously reduce the heat transfer rate which would occur from the production tubing area to the production casing region is being studied in recent decades because of its wide applications in Oil & Gas Industry. Reduction of heat transfer rate can lead to the minimization of trapped annular pressures and reduction of contents of hydrates resolvable in production fluids. This paper utilizing ANSYS Fluent gives numerical solution for the combined convection problem of this packer fluid. Because of the geometry of the tubing-to-casing annulus, it is modeled as vertical and long parallel plates in ANSYS Fluent geometry part where the width of the duct is small comparable to the length of the duct. The flow is assumed to lie in laminar region and ANSYS Fluent laminar flow model is utilized. How different parameters including aspect ratio, temperature difference and inlet velocity will have effects on the convective heat transfer rate are analyzed respectively by measuring and calculating dimensionless parameters including Nusselt number, Reynolds number, Prandtl number, Grashof number and Rayleigh number. Numerical results characterize the convective heat transfer performance of the packer fluid.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Engineering

Grantor

Rice University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Xu, Heqi

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bayazitoglu, Yildiz

• Combined Convection
• Packer Fluid

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1911/96149

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.rice.edu:1911/96149