The 2PFG has an outdoor experimental loop encompassing a
vertical section with 7.8 meter long
connected to a horizontal section with 24 meters
long, both with 26mm ID pipe. The flow loop operates with compressed air or Nitrogen and water
or oils with viscosities spanning from 1 cP to 400 cP. The pipe rack supports two lines:
a transparent one made of plexiglass and the other
of steel pipe. The first one operates near
atmospheric pressure but allows
flow visualization while the steel line operates up to 9 Barg
allowing tests with heavy oils. Three 70SCFM compressors supply the compressed air. Nitrogen
is supplied through compressed bottles. The water is fed to the loop by a set of
centrifugal pumps
while the oils are pumped by another set of
progressive cavity pumps.
The loop can operate over
a wide range of flow rates that are continuously measured by a set of
gas and liquid measurement flow devices.
After measuring flow rates, temperature and pressure of each stream they are mixed
at the entrance of the
vertical and/or
horizontal
sections to generate the various two phase
flow patterns: slug, bubbles, annular, stratified and churn. The experimental facility is remotely
operated by a
supervisory system using
LabView environment. The 2PFG also has a series
of benchmark loops to calibrate pressure transducers, liquid flow meters and temperature sensors.
It also has available a
viscosimeter, digital camera, and a two-channel hot wire anemometer. The partnership with
PETROBRAS
grants, in some specific projects, the use of its experimental facilities located in
Atalaia (SE).
Probably this experimental facility is one of a kind in the word capable to
reproduce the field conditions under the controlled environment of the experimental loop.