Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Malaysian Waxy Crude Oil-water Two-phase Flow Based on Contact Angle in Horizontal Pipe

The petroleum sector frequently uses pipelines to transport crude oil. Due to varying topography and climatic conditions, the characteristics of crude oil from various sources varied, changing the transport profile while activities were underway. The computational fluid dynamics model for this investigation was created using computer code. The governing equations were used to analyze how different aspects of crude oil, such as density and viscosity, affected the transportation profile. The main objective of this study was to examine the CFD Fluent simulation of the flow pattern, pressure drop, and liquid holdup of Malaysian waxy crude oil–water. A 5.08 m pipe design using Autodesk Inventor and the CFD Fluent was loaded with the pipe's geometry. The developed model was validated by comparing the simulation findings to those from the experimental work. To create a base model for the Malaysian waxy crude oil–water, a mesh independence analysis was done to identify the best kind of mesh for the specified geometry. The type of mesh was decided after a few experiments. The efficiency of the meshes generated by the various types of mesh was evaluated using the ratio of the degree of skewness to the total number of meshes. By choosing the mesh and turbulence CFD that are most suitable for the waxy crude oil and water, the ANSYS Fluent software will be used to study the many options and features of the software and develop validated models.