Hydrate agglomeration modeling and pipeline hydrate slurry flow behavior simulation

Dynamic modeling and numerical simulation of hydrate slurry flow behavior are of great importance to offshore hydrate management. For this purpose, a dynamic model of hydrate agglomeration was proposed in this paper. Based on population balance equation, the frame of the dynamic model was established first, which took both hydrate agglomeration and hydrate breakage into consideration. Then, the calculating methods of four key parameters involved in the dynamic model were given according to hydrate agglomeration dynamics. The four key parameters are collision frequency, agglomeration efficiency, breakage frequency and the size distribution of sub particles resulting from particle breakage. After the whole dynamic model was built, it was combined with several traditional solid–liquid flow models and then together solved by the CFD software FLUENT 14.5. Finally, using this method, the influences of flow rate and hydrate volume fraction on hydrate particle size distribution, hydrate volume concentration distribution and pipeline pressure drop were simulated and analyzed.