6. Determination of the Discharge Coefficient of Multiphase Meters Through Computational Simulation

In oil production, multiphase flow, composed of oil, gas, and water, is often found in the production system. The conventional method to measure the flow rates of multiphase flow is by measuring the flow of the individual phases after separation, which is a method commonly used in host platforms. However, there are several cases in which this approach is not feasible or practical, for example, in subsea systems, for the measurement of individual wells in a commingled system. In this context, multiphase flowmeters are usually employed. These meters can measure multiphase flow without phase separation and typically have a Venturi as the primary element. Although Venturi tubes are standardized by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 5167-4:2003, the standard does not cover the Discharge Coefficient (Cd) for Multiphase Flow. Moreover, there is little academic work devoted to investigating the Discharge Coefficient of Venturis with Multiphase flow. In this work, numerical simulations were performed in Computational Fluid Dynamics based on the finite volume technique in three dimensions, using a non-homogeneous model (i.e., gas-liquid slip ratio \(\ne \)1), through the ANSYS Fluent software, for a Venturi meter in vertical and horizontal positions. Finally, the results are discussed and compared to other academic works.