Simulation of Hydrate Particles Aggregation and Deposition in Gas-Dominated Flow

Owing to low-temperature and high-pressure production environments, hydrate generation, accumulation, and deposition are prone to occur in deepwater oil and gas production wells and transportation pipelines, leading to pipeline blockage and threatening the safety of oil and gas production. To explore the aggregation mechanism and deposition law of hydrate particles in the main gas diversion pipeline, this study considered the adhesion effect of hydrate particles and established a hydrate particle aggregation and deposition model based on theory and experiments. The coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method (CFD-DEM) is used in the simulation calculation. The simulation results were compared with the relevant experimental results, and maximum and average errors of 9.48% and 4.56% were observed, respectively. It was found that the main factor affecting the aggregation of hydrates is the adhesion between particles. As the subcooling temperature increased, the aggregation and adhesion of the hydrate particles increased to varying degrees. The tangential adhesion force between the hydrate aggregate particles was significantly greater than the normal adhesion force, and the adhesion force between the particles gradually increased from the surface to the interior of the aggregates. The coordination number of the hydrate particles can quantitatively characterize the degree of aggregation and is affected by many factors, such as adhesion. By studying the particle coordination number, the evolution of hydrate accumulation and deposition under different conditions can be summarized. Based on the simulation results, the mathematical relationship between different dimensionless numbers and hydrate deposition ratio (HDR) was calculated, and an expression that can predict the HDR was obtained, with an average relative error of 10.155%. This study provides a theoretical basis for predicting the aggregation and deposition of hydrate particles in gas-dominated systems and a reference for the development of hydrate prevention and control plans.