Aspects of wellbore heat transfer during two-phase flow - Texas A&M University (TAMU) Scholar

Wellbore fluid temperature is governed by the rate of heat loss from the wellbore to the surrounding formation, which in turn is a function of depth and production/injection time. An approach to estimate wellbore fluid temperature during steady-state two phase flow is presented. The method incorporates a new solution of the thermal diffusivity equation and the effect of both conductive and convective heat transport for the wellbore/formation system. A field example is used to illustrate the fluid temperature calculation procedure and shows the importance of accounting for convection in the tubing/casing annulus. A sensitivity study shows that significant differences exist between the predicted wellhead temperature and the formation surface temperature and that the fluid temperature gradient is nonlinear. The expression for fluid temperature developed for single-phase flow should not be applied when multiphase flow is encountered. -from Authors

Aspects of wellbore heat transfer during two-phase flow Academic Article