Cover
Vol. 25 No. 2 (2025)

Published: December 31, 2025

Pages: 50-60

Original Article

Experimental and Computational Analysis of Slug Flow Through a Horizontal Perforated Wellbore

Ahmed Hatif Kareem 1 Qais A. Rishack 1 Mohammed A. Abdulwahid 2
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq
2 Thermal Mechanical Engineering Department, Basrah Engineering Technical College, Southern Technical University, Basrah, Iraq
History
  • Received: August 2, 2025
  • Revised: August 25, 2025
  • Accepted: September 9, 2025
  • Available Online: December 31, 2025
DOI

https://doi.org/10.33971/bjes.25.2.6

Abstract

There have been efforts and studies that have been carried out with respect to the flow patterns, pressure drops (PD), and void fraction (VF) that can be found in horizontal wells. Notwithstanding, particular attention has not been paid to research of two-phase flow (TFF) in perforated horizontal boreholes. Recently, a number of attempts have been undertaken to investigate the features of gas-liquid systems, which exist in a TFF in a perforated horizontal wellbore, which is a little studied tree of the wellbore family. The stated investigations are devoted to the TFF of liquid and gas in a horizontal wellbore, which has a diameter and length of $25.4~mm\times3$ m respectively, with 18 uniform perforations. In the developed Fluent VOF model integrated in ANSYS 22 R1, the turbulence treatment and flow conditions within three-dimensional space, including water and air, with various flow rates were used to study the influence of high water and air velocities (SVW, SVA) on flow characteristics including PD, production (Q), VF, and liquid retention time in a horizontal well. The sequences of slug flow (SF) phenomena have been studied in detail for this pulsated flow. In particular, the first scenario is where SVW can reach velocities of $1.22~m/s$ and SVA of $1.68~m/s;$ in the second scenario, an increase in the SVW to $2.52~m/s$ is noted; and in the last scenario, the value of SVA is increased to $2.2~m/s$. The empirical study was mainly targeted on the SF through a perforated horizontal wellbore. The productivity (Q), PD, and SF were found to benefit from an increase in axial flow rate (SVW), more than from increase in radial flow rate (SVA). In scenario two, productivity rises by even 84.108% as SVW changes, while in the last scenario Q increases by only 9.708% as SVA is increased. Further, the numerical and experimental results provide a reasonable match.

Keywords

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