Journal of Applied Fluid Mechanics, Vol. x, No. x, pp. x-x, 200x.

Available online at www.jafmonline.net, ISSN 1735-3645, EISSN 1735-3645.

Prediction of water wetting and water film thickness in

horizontal and slightly inclined oil–water pipelines based
on three-layer liquid-liquid model
N. T. Duc†
Institute of Mechanics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Ha Noi, Vietnam

†Corresponding Author Email: ntduc@imech.vast.vn

ABSTRACT

The oil-water flow in pipeline is a common occurrence in petroleum industry. As the water cut increase, the
regime of stratified flow with separate layers of water and oil phases may occur. The existence of water layer
at the pipe bottom may increase possibility of internal corrosion and decrease transport capacity of pipelines.
The paper presents a tool for predicting possibility of water wetting and evaluating thickness of water film.
Prediction of water wetting possibility is based on calculation of the critical velocity for water entrainment. If
all the water is not entrained by the flowing oil phase, a free water layer are formed and it is important to
predict water film thickness, in-situ water cut, water velocity and water wetted pipe area for this layer.
Method for evaluating these parameters is developed using a two-phase liquid-liquid three-layer model. This
model for oil-water flow is developed from solution of mass and momentum equations for three layers: pure
water, pure oil and water-oil mixture. The prediction methods are tested by comparing the calculated results
with experimental data. Effects of important flow parameters are also analyzed from simulated results.

Keywords: Water entrainment; Critical velocity; Corrosion; Water Cut.

1. INTRODUCTION developments of better prediction methods are

The simultaneous flow of oil and water in pipelines
is a common occurrence in the petroleum industry.
A significant amount of water is often present with
oil from the well perforations to the final stage of
oil separation. The water phase contains dissolved
corrosive gases such as CO2 or H 2 S , therefore the
water is corrosive. At low water volume fraction,
the water is entrained by the flowing oil,
consequently oil wets the pipe and the corrosion is
negligible. As the volume fraction of water
increases, the water “break out” may appear, the
bottom of the pipe is wetted by water, and corrosion
occurs.
Because corrosion mainly occurs when a water film
exists and pipe flow in the stratified regime. It is
important to predict possibility of water wetting and
to evaluate thickness of water film. Three-
dimensional CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)
model can be used for simulating two-phase flow
(Duc et al. 2009; Burlutskii 2018). However, this
model is difficult to use for long pipes because it
requires very large computing time. On other hand,
the applicability of gas-liquid prediction models has
been proven to be inadequate for oil-water flow
(Taitel et al. 1976; Arirachakaran et al. 1986;
Trallelo et al. 1996; Bratlan et al. 2009). The
necessary.
The paper presents a method for predicting
possibility of water wetting and evaluating
thickness of water film. Prediction of water wetting
possibility is based on calculation of the critical
velocity for water entrainment. Method for
evaluating water film thickness is based on a two-
phase liquid-liquid three-layer model. The
prediction methods are tested available
experimental data. Effects of important flow
parameters are also discussed using simulated
results.
2. METHOD FOR EVALUATION OF
WATER ENTRAINMENT
To distinguish between fully dispersed and stratified
flows, we use the method developed by Barnea
(1987) and Brauner (2001). A critical velocity for
water entrainment is used as the criterion for
forming stable water-in-oil dispersed flow. Two
main physical properties are compared to deduce
the criterion:
1. Maximum droplet size d max related to
breakup and coalescence.
2. Critical droplet size d crit related to
settling and separation.
First Author et al. / JAFM, Vol. x, No. x, pp. x-x, 200x.

Under favorable condition, water is entrained by the (3), which can be considered as the worst case for a
flowing oil phase in the form of fine droplets, it is given oil-water system,
necessary to know the maximum droplet size d max
d max  d  d  
that can sustain by the flow without further breakup.  max  max  ,  max   (5)
In the dilute water-in-oil dispersion, value of d max D   D  dilute  D  dense 

is related to the balance between the turbulent Along with determination of maximum droplet size
kinetic energy and the droplet surface energy. d max that can be sustained by the flow without
Brauner (2001) shows that this relation can be
written as, further breakup, it is essential to evaluate a critical
droplet size d crit . Droplet larger than a critical
0.4
 d max    1 w  droplet size d crit will separate out from the two-
   1.88  o  Weo0.6 Re 0.08
o (1)
 D  dilute  m  phase flow dispersion either due to gravity forces in
horizontal flow, or due to deformation and creaming
where in vertical flow (Barnea, 1987).
o DU c Critical droplet diameter dcb above which
Reo   DU c2
; Weo  o separation of droplets due to gravity takes place can
o 
be found via a balance of gravity and turbulent
with D is the pipe diameter ( m ),  w is the in-situ forces as:

water cut,  denotes the densities ( kg .m 3 ). The d cb 3 o fU c2 3 o

  Fro (6)
subscripts o , m and w denote oil phase, oil-water D 8  Dg cos    8 
mixture and water phases respectively. The
subscript dilute denotes dilute dispersion. U c is Where  is the pipe inclination, the Froude number
the velocity of continuous (oil) phase ( ms 1 ). o is is:
the viscosity of oil phase ( Pa.s ) and  is the fU c2
Fro 
interfacial tension of oil phase ( Nm 1 ). Dg cos   
It is noted that this equation can be only valid in the
dilute dispersion that means it satisfies the and
following condition:
   o   w
o
1 w  1 (2) This effect is common at low pipe inclination i.e. in
m
horizontal and near horizontal flows.
In the condition of dense dispersions, droplet In vertical and near-vertical flows, critical droplet
coalescence takes place. Eq. (1) can not be used in diameter d c above which drops are deformed and
this case. Under this condition, the flow rate of oil creamed leading to migration of the droplets
phase Qo should carry sufficient turbulent energy towards the pipe walls can be calculated by
to disrupt the coalescing tendency of the water following equation (Brodkey 1967):
droplets flowing at a rate Qw . This requirement d c 0.5
means that the rate of surface energy production in  (7)
D  gD 2 cos   
the coalescing water phase is proportional to the
rate of turbulent energy supply by the flowing oil with
phase. From this condition, Brauner (2001) obtained
the following equation for determining the   khi   45o
maximum droplet size in the case of dense water-in-  
oil dispersion: 90   khi   45o

  U 2D    
0.6
Then the critical diameter d crit can be estimated for
 d max 
   2.22CH0.6 . o c   w  any pipe inclination (Barnea 1987):
 D dense    1   w 
0.4 (3) d crit d d 
 m   Min  cb , c  (8)
  D  D D 

 o  1   
w 
Finally, the criterion for water entrainment can be
where CH is a constant of the order of 1. The formulated. The transition from stratified flow to
subscript dense denotes the dense oil-in-water stable water –in-oil dispersed one takes place when
the oil phase turbulence is intense enough to
dispersion. f is the friction factor:
maintain the water phase broken out into droplets
f  0.046 Re0.2
o (4) not larger than d max which has to be smaller than a
critical droplet size d crit causing droplet separation.
Therefore, with a given oil-water system, the
The final criterion is then (Brauner 2001):
maximum droplet size that can be sustained is the
larger of the two values obtained via Eq. (1) and Eq. d max  d crit (9)

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where d max and d crit are calculated from Eqs. (1)- represent the interface between layer as shown in
(8). Fig. 1.
By using Eqs. (5), (8) and (9), we can determine the Ao , Am , Aw - cross-sectional areas.
critical velocity ucrit above which the flow is fully So , S m , S w - wetted perimeters.
dispersed. Si1 , Si 2 - interfacial perimeter.
 - pipe inclination (  is positive for upward
3. THREE-LAYER TWO-PHASE LIQUID- flow)
LIQUID MODEL FOR STRATIFIED  o ,  m ,  w - density of different phases ( kg m3 )
FLOW
 o ,  m ,  w - wall shear stress ( N m2 )
The above mentioned method can predict whether  i1 ,  i 2 - interfacial shear stress ( N m2 )
the water phase is not entirely entrained and flows dp 2
separated from oil phase. In the case of stratified - pressure gradient ( N m )
dx
flows, for corrosion calculations it is crucial to
predict the in-situ water cut, water velocity, water It is assumed that pressure gradient is the same in
film thickness and water wetted pipe cross-section the three regions. The equations are combined to
area. Multi-layer segregated flow model is suitable remove this term.
for above requirement. A three-layer segregated From Eqs. (10) and (11), elimination of the pressure
flow model was proposed by Neogi et al. (1994) term gives,
and Taitel et al. (1995) to calculate the thickness of
So S S S S 
water layer for gas-water-oil three-phase stratified o   m m   i1 i1   i 2  i 2  i 2 
flow. Vendapuri (1997) developed a three-layer Ao Am Am  Ao Am  (13)
segregated flow model to calculate the thickness of    o   m  g sin   0
water layer and in-situ water cut for oil-water flows.
This model for developed water-oil flow considers By eliminating the pressure term from Eqs. (11) and
water, oil and a mixed layer in between as three (12), we have,
different phases with their own distinct properties.
The existence of mixed layer is confirmed from Sm S S S S 
visualization experiments. Assume that the interface m   w w   i 2 i 2   i1  i1  i1 
Am Aw Am  m Aw 
A (14)
between the pure water layer and mixed layer and
the interface between the mixed layer and pure oil    m   w  g sin   0
layer are flat. The modeling representation of the
flow can be seen in Fig. 1. The shear stresses can be evaluated using Blasius
type relation (Taitel and Ducker 1976):

oU o2  U2  U2
 o  fo ;  m  fm m m ;  w  fw w w
2 2 2

 i1  U m  U w  U m  U w
 i1  f i1
2
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the three- i 2  U o  U m  U o  U m
phase segregated oil-water flow  i2  f i 2 (15)
2
Using the notations in Fig. 1, the momentum where:
balance for each phase can be written as follows: U m , U o , U w - in-situ velocities of the different
For pure oil layer:
phases.
 dp  f o , f m , f w - friction factors.
 Ao     o So   i 2 Si 2  o Ao g sin  (10)
 dx  f i1 , f i2 - interfacial friction factors.
 i1 ,  i 2 - densities at the interfaces.
For oil-water mixed layer:
The density at the interface is set to the larger of
 dp  two densities of interfacing layers:
 Am     m S m   i1Si1   i 2 Si 2   m Am g sin  (11)
 dx  i1  max   m ,  w 
For pure water layer:
i 2  max  o ,  m 
 dp 
 Aw     w S w   i1Si1   w Aw g sin  (12)
 dx  The friction factors are evaluated using a method
similar to Brauner et al. (1992):
where,
The subscripts o , m and w denote the pure oil
layer, the oil-water mixed layer and the pure water
layer, respectively. The subscript i1 and i 2

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 No
 D U  with Qo , Qm and Qw are the volumetric flow rates
f o  Co  o o o  of the pure oil, pure water, and oil-water mixture
 o  3
 Nm phases respectively ( m s ).
 D U 
f m  Cm  m m m  (16)
 o 
 Nw
 D U 
f w  Cw  w w w 
 w 

with Do , Dm and Dw are layer hydraulic

diameters: Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the mixing
phenomena in oil-water flows
 4 Ao
 S if Uo  Um
 o
From Fig. 2, it can be seen that the mass balance
Do   can be written as follows:
 4 A o
if Uo  Um
 So  Si 2 Qw,input  Qw  Cml Qm (20)

 4 Am Qo ,input  Qo   1  Cml  Qm (21)

 if Um  Uo &U m  U w
Sm
 where:
 4 Am
 if Um  Uo &U m  U w Qw,input - Input water volumetric flow rate, m3 s .
 S m  Si 2
Dm   Qo ,input - Input oil volumetric flow rate, m3 s .
 4 Am
if Um  Uo &Um  Uw Cml - Water fraction within mixture layer.
 S m  Si1
 From above mass balance equations, the relations
 4 Am
if Um  Uo &U m  Uw between the superficial velocities can be written as
S  S  S
 m i1 i2 follows:
 4 Aw U sw, input  U sw  CmlU sm
 S if Uw  Um (22)
 w
Dw   (17)
 4 Ao U so , input  U so   1  Cml  U sm (23)
if Uw  Um
 S w  Si1
where:
and o ,  m ,  w denote the phase viscosities. U sw, input - Input superficial velocity of the water
The values of Ck and N k ( k  o, m, w ) are layer, m s .
depended whether the flow condition is turbulent or U so ,input - Input superficial velocity of the oil layer,
laminar: m s.
- Ck  0.046 and N k  0.2 in turbulent flows.
U sw - In situ superficial velocity of water layer,
- Ck  16 and N k  1 in laminar flows.
m s.
Turbulent or laminar flow conditions in each phase
are identified by calculating the Reynold number U sm - In situ superficial velocity of mixture layer,
for each phase: m s.
4U k Ak  k U so - In situ superficial velocity of oil layer, m s .
Rek  with k  o, m, w (18)
Sk k The momentum and the mass balance equations
need to be solved simultaneously. However, there
Laminar flow is assumed for Re k  2300 and flow are only four equations containing six unknowns.
is turbulent for Re k  2300 . These unknowns are U sw , U sm , U so , Cml , Aw and
Friction factor of the interface is assigned to the Am . Therefore, two more equations have to be
larger among the two wall friction factors of the added.
interfacing layers. In this model, the additional relations are
Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of the mixing determined from the experimental observations
phenomena in oil-water flows. It can be seen that related to the composition and velocity of mixture
the two known parameters are the volumetric flow layer (Brinkman1952; Shi et al. 2002). The first
rate of oil and of the water. Usually, the analysis of relation is that the in situ velocity of the mixture
the oil-water flows requires knowledge of the layer is approximately 1.2 times the input mixture
superficial velocities of the three phases-pure oil, velocity. The second relation is also defined from
pure water, and oil-water mixture: the measurements. It was seen that in most cases
studies, the water percentage of the mixture layer
Qo Q Q was very close to the input water cut. Therefore, the
U so  ; U sm  m ; U sw  w (19)
A A A closure equations can be written as follows:
U m  1.2 * U in (24)

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Qw, input
Cml  (25)
Qo ,input  Qw,input

4. DESCRIPTION OF COMPUTATION
PROGRAM

Using above mentioned mathematical model, a

computer program have been developed. The
program was written in Fortran 90.
The input of the program includes the fluid
properties, the total mixture velocity and water cut,
and the pipe diameter and inclination. The water
fraction of the mixture layer is then set to the input
water cut. Initially, the in situ superficial velocity of
mixture layer is set to a very low value. Using Eqs.
Fig. 3. Comparison between measurement and
(22) and (23), the in situ superficial velocities of oil
prediction for the pure water layer thickness at
and water layers can be calculated. At this time, the
input water cut of 20%.
superficial velocities and the properties of three
layers are available. Eqs. (13) and (14) are then
solved to predict the height HW , which is the film
thickness of the water layer, and the height H ,
which is the sum of the film thickness of the water
and mixture layers. After the film thicknesses are
calculated, the in situ velocities of three phases are
calculated. A check for convergence is made by
comparing the in situ mixture layer. If the criterion
is not satisfied, U sm is modified by the bisection
algorithm (Press et al. 1996).

4. CALCULATED RESULTS

4.1 Experimental Validation

The model is validated by comparing its predicted
results with experimental data of Shi et al. (2002)
for the pure layer thickness at input water cuts from Fig. 4. Comparison between measurement and
20% to 80%. All the experiments were conducted at prediction for the pure water layer thickness at
the temperature of 25o C in a 200’’ long, 4’’ input water cut of 40%.
(0.1016 m ) internal diameter pipeline. The
properties of used oil at 25o C were:  o =820
kg / m3 and o =2 cP . The seawater was used
with the following properties:  w =1024 kg / m3
and  w =1 cP . The oil water surface tension was
 =0.029 N / m .
The comparison between measurement and
prediction for the pure water layer thickness at input
water cut of 20% is shown in Fig. 3. Similarly, Figs.
4-6 present the comparison at water cuts of 40%,
60% and 80% respectively. From the figures, it is
found the reasonable agreements between the
experimental and the predicted data are achieved,
especially for lower water cut.

Fig. 5. Comparison between measurement and

prediction for the pure water layer thickness at
input water cut of 60%.

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First Author et al. / JAFM, Vol. x, No. x, pp. x-x, 200x.
Fig. 6. Comparison between measurement and
prediction for the pure water layer thickness at
input water cut of 80%.
4.2 Effect of flow parameters on critical
velocity
The model is used to investigate effect of flow
parameter on the critical velocity.
Fig. 7 shows the effect of water cut on critical
velocity for the case of  o =820 kg / m3 , o =2
cP , d =0.1016 m and  =0.029 N / m . From the
figure, it can be seen that increasing water cut leads
to higher critical velocity.
Fig. 7. Effect of water cut on critical velocity at
o =820 kg / m3 , o =2 cP , d =0.1016 m and 
=0.029 N / m .
Fig. 8 shows the effect of the pipe diameter on the
critical velocity for the case of  o =820 kg / m3 ,
o =2 cP , water cut= 20% and  =0.029 N / m .
Larger pipe diameter is associated with larger
critical velocity. However, it can be seen that the
relation is not really linear.
6
Fig. 8. Effect of pipe diameter on critical velocity
at o =820 kg / m3 , o =2 cP , water cut = 20%
and  =0.029 N / m .
The effect of oil density on the critical velocity is
show in Fig. 9 for the case of d =0.1016 m , o =2
cP , water cut=20% and  =0.029 N / m .
Increasing oil density decreases the critical velocity.
The reason of this phenomenon is that when the oil
density increases, the miscibility between oil and
water increase. The momentum and mass exchange
between them is much easier so that water can be
much easier entrained and suspended by heavier oil
phase.
Fig. 9. Effect of oil density on critical velocity at
d =0.1016 m , o =2 cP , water cut = 20% and
 =0.029 N / m .
Fig. 10 shows the effects of oil surface tension on
the critical velocity. The figure shows that higher
surface tension corresponds to higher critical
velocity. It can be explained that higher surface
tension correspond to higher surface energy of
droplets. This means that higher flow rate of the
flowing oil phase is need to deform and break the
droplets.
First Author et al. / JAFM, Vol. x, No. x, pp. x-x, 200x.
Fig. 10. Effect of surface tension on critical
velocity at d =0.1016 m , o =2 cP , water cut =
20% and  o =820 kg / m3 .
Fig. 11 shows the effect of oil viscosity on the
critical velocity. It can be seen that the effect is
relatively small. The oils with high viscosities have
a slightly higher tendency to form stable oil-water
emulsion. One water droplets are entrained in the
flowing oil phase; they will be stabilized and
suspended as droplets in the oil phase because the
coalescence of droplets decreases with increasing
the oil viscosity. In this case, lower coalescence at
higher oil viscosity leads to a lower critical velocity
to form stable water-in-oil dispersed flow.
Fig. 11. Effect of viscosity on critical velocity at
d =0.1016 m , o =2 cP , water cut = 20% , o
=820 kg / m3 and  =0.029 N / m .
5. CONCLUSION
The paper presents a method for evaluating
possibility of water wetting and calculating water
film thickness in horizontal and nearly horizontal
pipelines. The prediction of water wetting
possibility is based on the calculation of the critical
velocity for water entrainment. The calculation of
water film thickness along with in situ water cut,
water velocity is carried out by using a two-phase
liquid-liquid three-layer model.
The validation of the method was performed by
using available published experimental data. The
7
effect of input water cut, pipe diameter, oil density,
oil-water surface tension and oil viscosity on the
critical velocity were evaluated and discussed.
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