Institut Francais Du Pe'trole

Emmanuel Duret

Eric Heintze

Isabelle Rey-Fabret

Quang-Huy Tran

Jean Falcimaigne

Isabelle Faille

Yannick Peysson

V&eacute;ronique Henriot

A system inserted between the base of a riser () and a production well flowline for collecting an effluent consisting of at least a gas phase and a liquid phase, includes a capacity () including an inlet port for the effluent and two outlet ports, one in the upper part of said capacity for the gas phase, the other in the lower part for the liquid phase communicating with the base of the riser, a gas supply line () connecting the gas outlet port to the riser at a predetermined height H, including a flow control valve (), and an instrumentation set for locating the level of the liquid/gas interface in the capacity, a computer receiving the instrumentation data for determining the instructions for controlling said flow control valve so as to adjust the volume of gas fed at height H into the riser.

System for neutralizing the formation of slugs in a riser

Method and device for neutralizing, by controlled gas injection, the formation of liquid slugs at the foot of a pipe portion greatly inclined to the horizontal or riser connected to a pipe carrying circulating multiphase fluids such as hydrocarbons. Flow rate control is essentially obtained by injecting, at the base of the riser, a volume of gas proportional to the flow rate variation with time of the gas phase of the circulating fluids, and preferably substantially equal thereto, when this variation is positive. This action can be completed by modulating the injected gas flow by a quantity proportional to the flow rate variation of the liquid phase of the circulating fluids. Applications: offshore hydrocarbon production control for example.

Method and device for neutralizing, by controlled gas injection, the formation of liquid slugs at the foot of a riser connected to a multiphase fluid transport pipe

An automatic pipe gridding method allowing implementation of codes for modelling fluids carried by pipes is disclosed which has for example an application for oil pipes. The method comprises, considering a minimum and a maximum grid cell size, subdividing the pipe into sections including bends, positioning cells of minimum size on either side of each bend, positioning large cells whose size is at most equal to the maximum size in the central portion of each section, and distributing cells of increasing or decreasing size on the intermediate portions of each section between each minimum-size cell and the central portion. The method preferably comprises a prior stage of simplification of the pipe topography by means of weight or frequency spectrum analysis, so as to reduce the total number of cells without affecting the representativeness of the flow model obtained with the grid pattern.

Automatic pipe gridding method allowing implementation or flow modelling codes

The invention is a method and system for real-time estimation of the flow mode, at all points of a pipe whose structure is defined by a certain number of structure parameters, of a multiphase fluid stream defined by several physical quantities providing simplified implementation of hydrodynamic modules that can be integrated in modelling tools. A non-linear neural network is formed with an input layer having as many inputs as there are structure parameters and physical quantities, an output layer with as many outputs as there are quantities necessary for estimation of the flow mode and at least one intermediate layer. A learning base is created with predetermined tables connecting various values obtained for the output data to the corresponding values of the input data, with iterative determination of the weighting factors of the activation function allowing to properly connect the values in the input and output data tables. In order to avoid singularities of the network output data likely to distort the determination of the weighting factors, a sorting procedure is used to eliminate non-pertinent data. The main advantages of the method are: modelling simplification and time saving.

Method and system intended for real-time estimation of the flow mode of a multiphase fluid stream at all points of a pipe

A method for forming a module (hydrodynamic or thermodynamic for example) intended for real-time simulation of the flow mode, at any point of a pipe, of a multiphase fluid stream comprising at least a liquid phase and at least a gas phase. The method comprises using a modelling system based on non-linear neural networks each having inputs for structure parameters and physical quantities, outputs where quantities necessary for estimation of the flow mode are available, and at least one intermediate layer. The neural networks are determined iteratively to adjust to the values of a learning base with predetermined tables connecting various values obtained for the output data to the corresponding values of the input data. A learning base suited to the imposed operating conditions is used and optimized neural networks best adjusted to the imposed operating conditions are generated.

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Rueil Malmaison, France

Emmanuel Duret