Use of the ESDU Compilation of Two-Phase Flow Correlations for the Prediction of Well Discharge Characteristics

Abstract

There has been a large number of papers written on the calculation of two-phase pressure drop distributions in flowing geothermal wells, probably more than is justified by the need for the results. There may he instances where such calculations are of in examining individual wells, but the main reasons f o r carrying out work on this topic we consider to be:

i ) Determining from the characteristics of a small diameter well what the o f a large diameter well would be. Having this ability would also provide the means of optimising production well dimensions, but lbore pressure drop does not take very high priorityin the list of factors governing these.

i i ) Estimating power a t wellhead during field rundown. Reservoir ators are available to provide estimates of reservoir pressure and enthalpy throughout a field during the production life and need to be used in conjunction w i t h wellbore flow calculations to determine the well discharge characteristics.

iii) Providing pressure and temperature with depth in the wellbore to be used i n conjunction with geochemical calculations to correlate or predict scaling.