Semi-analytical solutions of Newtonian fluid-FENE-P fluid core annular flow

Water-lubricated transportation of viscous oil is an important application of core annular flow (CAF), which significantly reduces friction pressure drop and saves pump power. However, the core oil floats up due to the density difference of oil and water, causing instability and even destruction of CAF, which restricts the application and development of the drag reduction technology. The viscoelastic fluid in the annular can inhibit the tendency of the core oil to float up and enhance the stability of the CAF. Nevertheless, theoretical studies related to the viscoelastic fluid CAF are currently missing. To make up for the lack of theoretical research, the solutions of laminar concentric viscous oil-viscoelastic fluid CAF in horizontal and inclined pipes are obtained in this work, and the annular fluid is regarded as viscoelastic fluid conforming to the FENE-P model. Based on the Navier–Stokes equation and FENE-P model, a non-dimensional CAF model is established, and the Newton–Raphson method is used to solve the model. The rheological behavior of annular fluid and the effects of viscoelastic fluid rheology and viscosity ratio on various CAF flow characteristics, including holdup, pressure gradient, slip ratio, and Ledinegg instability, are investigated. The results indicate that the shear-thinning effect of viscoelastic fluid has a significant effect on water holdup and expands the multi-solution region. Different from Newtonian fluid, when the annulus fluid is viscoelastic, the slip ratio can be less than 2. The most significant property is that the shear-thinning effect can transform the hydraulic characteristic curve in the multi-valued region into a single-valued curve, which helps to eliminate Ledinegg instability.