Design and Analysis of a New Profile Control Tool: Swirling Autonomous Inflow-Control Device

Abstract

Edge/bottomwater cresting or even breaking into the wellbore has been a major factor affecting crude-oil production and has not been overcome so far. Aiming at this problem, this paper designs a new autonomous inflow-control device (AICD) profile control tool—swirling AICD—on the basis of the research of profile control tools used in the past. The AICD is mainly based on the principle of automatic phase separation, the splitting of three-way pipes, and the principle of vortex depressurization. Combined with the special flow path, the production of edge/bottomwater can be effectively restrained. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation and indoor flow experiments are used to prove the water-control function of the swirling AICD, to obtain the pressure and velocity distribution of fluid flow in the AICD, and to obtain the influencing factors and their influence rules. Based on these analyses, we established the swirling AICD mathematical model, which has laid a theoretical foundation for the application of swirling AICDs in wells.