Flowline, a Choke and a PDG

Add choke, PDG, and flowline elements to the One Flow model.

This tutorial adds optional features that increase the complexity of the system: a choke, a Pressure Downhole Gauge (PDG), and a flowline. Complete previous tutorial and keep the saved file before continuing.

Video tutorial coming soon

A YouTube walkthrough will be embedded here.

1. Upload the File

Select Home in the sidebar.
Select Clear All Data to start from a clean model.
Select Upload File and choose the file saved in the previous tutorial, for example model_well_tutorial_1_oneflow_YYYYMMDD.

2. Add a Choke and PDG

Select Simulation in the sidebar.
Enter Choke. Use 120.
Enter PDG MD. Use 1600.

Chokes are commonly described in 64ths of an inch. A 120/64 choke corresponds to 1.875 in, but TapirFlow only requires the value 120. In this fictional well, the tubing ends at 1700 m, so a PDG at 1600 m is a reasonable location.

Select Home in the sidebar.
Enter Model Name. Use Well Tutorial-2.
Enter Model Description. Keep Tutorial to get used to TapirFlow.

Tutorial 2 home page with choke and PDG model information — Model information after adding choke and PDG inputs.

Select Save File. TapirFlow will save a file named model_well_tutorial_2_oneflow_YYYYMMDD. Move it to your Tutorials folder.

3. Run the One Flow Simulation

Select Simulation in the sidebar.
Select Run One Flow.

One Flow results with choke and PDG — One Flow results after adding the choke and pressure downhole gauge.

P_wh and T_wh remain the same as in Tutorial 1. The results now also include P_down and T_down, which are the pressure and temperature downstream of the choke. Also include P_pdg and T_pdg, which are the pressure and temperature of the PDG.

4. Add a Flowline

Select Flowline in the sidebar and check Incorporate flowline data into the simulation.
Enter Rugosity. Use 0.05.
Enter Heat Coefficient. Use 30.
Go to + Add Segment.
Enter Pipe ID for both segments. Use 76.2.
Enter Length for both segments. Use 1000.
Enter High as 10 for the first segment and -10 for the second.

A pipe ID of 76.2 mm corresponds to a typical 3 in flowline. The elevation profile makes the fictional flowline rise for 1 km and then fall for another 1 km.

Select Show Geometry to view the integrated well and flowline geometry.

Select Home in the sidebar.
Enter Model Name. Use Well Tutorial-2part2.
Enter Model Description. Keep Tutorial to get used to TapirFlow.

Tutorial 2 part 2 home page with flowline model information — Model information after adding the flowline.

Select Save File. TapirFlow will save a file named model_well_tutorial_2part2_oneflow_YYYYMMDD. Move it to your Tutorials folder.

5. Run the One Flow Simulation with Flowline

Select Simulation in the sidebar.
Select Run One Flow.

One Flow results with choke, PDG, and flowline — One Flow results after adding the flowline. Psep and Tsep are now available.

P_down and T_down remain the same as in the previous run. The results now also include P_sep and T_sep, which are the pressure and temperature at the separator, the new final node.

Geometry Plot

6. Final Discussion and Exercise

In this example, P_wh is 2619 kPa, P_down is 2576 kPa, and Psep is 743 kPa. These components add pressure drops, as expected.

As an exercise, increase the last flowline segment length from 1000 to 2000 and run a new One Flow simulation. The total flowline length becomes 3000 m.

You will notice that a warning message is shown.

Open the plot Pressure Profile for Flowline.

Pressure profile with measured depth for the long-flowline exercise.

The wellhead is always at MD = 0 m.
The flowline is counted as positive MD until the final node. In this example, the separator is at MD = 3000 m.
At approximately MD = 2300 m, the pressure becomes zero because there is not enough pressure to sustain the 65 m³/d oil flow rate until the end. This scenario is not feasible.