MODELING OF AQUEOUS GAS AND OIL EMULSION SEPARATION IN A VORTEX FLOW. PART 2

To reduce the negative factor affecting both foaming and low degassing efficiency, the process occurring during flow swirling is considered. The pressure increase in the wall area of the pipe, with vortex depression in its axial part, contributes to the displacement of a liquid containing gas from the wall area, as having a lower density and constant replacement with degassed. The depressed axial area contributes to the displacement of gas from oil. At the same time, foaming is also sharply reduced or completely interrupted, due to the outflow of liquid from the surface of the bubble, its stretching and subsequent rupture, as well as the increasing diffusion of gases from small bubbles «pumping» their gas into large ones, which in turn also thin the film and coalesce. All these processes lead to the formation of a free gas phase in the axial region, as well as the minimization of the gas-containing oil layer bordering the axial gas cavity. The gas-liquid emulsion, entering the forseparator, in the area of a sharp pressure drop, cannot form foam, due to the absence of dissolved gas in the main volume of oil.