Implementing Mechanistic Pressure Drop Correlations in Geothermal Wellbore Simulators

Abstract

In the last decade pressure drop correlations for two-phase flow in wells have moved away from empirical correlations to being increasingly based on the description of physical characteristics of the flow. Two of these correlations, Ansari and Drift Flux were evaluated in our in-house wellbore simulator Geoflow for use in calculating deliverability curves, pressure gradient and fluid velocity in geothermal wellbore calculations.

It was observed that the Ansari correlation gave discontinuities in pressure profiles as well as in deliverability curves. The Drift Flux model offers a simpler and more robust alternative that compares favorably to data from geothermal wells.