Gas-liquid flow seal in the smooth annulus during plunger lifting process in gas wells

Liquid leakage and gas slippage through the annulus between an upward moving plunger and vertical tubing significantly reduce the uploading efficiency of the accumulated liquid during plunger lifting in gas wells. Understanding the characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow in the annulus during plunger lifting process is crucial to enhance the fluid seal and to improve the plunger lift technology, but investigations of this important issue in literature is extremely limited. In this paper, we employ VOF-CFD numerical approach to provide a computationally efficient flow model to account for interactions between loading liquid, producing gas and the lifting plunger in gas wells. Results from simulations are consistent with both the in-door experimental data and field observations, thus allowing us to reproduce detailed characteristics of gas-liquid flow in the annulus during plunger lifting process. The actual conditions in gas wells are simulated, in which the plunger upward velocity is ranged in 2 m/s ≤ v_p ≤ 10 m/s and the gas density is ranged in 13.9 kg/m³ ≤ ρ_g ≤ 80.9 kg/m³. Numerical results indicate that with the plunger lifting velocity increasing, the liquid leakage flow rate increases, the gas slippage flow rate decreases, and the gas-liquid countercurrent annular flow in the annular space transforms to the co-current upward annular flow. Based on the interface instability analysis, we reveal the mechanism of gas-liquid flow seal in the annulus which is promoted by the droplet entrainment and is weakened by the droplet deposition. A simple dimensionless coefficient is proposed to evaluate the uploading efficiency of the accumulated liquids by the plunger in gas wells, the bigger value of the coefficient represents the better performance of liquid sealing during plunger lifting process. The optimal diameter ratio between the plunger and tube (0.96), as well as the optimal diameter-length ratio of the plunger (0.13) are proposed to improve the plunger lift technology.