Gas-Liquid Flow through Electric Submersible Pumps By Roberto Cirilo of PDVSA Exploration & Production and Dale Doty

of Tulsa University

ABSTRACT This study measures the performance of three different submersible centrifugal pumps handling twophase flow. Two pumps are of mixed type and have rated capacities of 4000 and 7000 bpd. One pump is of radial type and has a rated capacity of 2100 bpd. The data was gathered as a function of the gas fraction, pressure at the pump intake, pump geometry and speed. The experimental data are obtained using air and water as the working fluids. The experiments were conducted for liquid flow rates up to 10000 bpd and intake pressures up to 500 psig. Pump speed was varied from 45 to 65 HZ, corresponding to 2650 to 3850 rpm. The results indicate that mixed type pumps are unable to process more than 30% free gas at 500-psig intake pressure, and that pump speed has little effect on the pump's capability to handle two-phase flow. The radial type pump exhibits flow range limitations when the gas fraction exceeds 10%, and is only able to processes at most 18% gas at 500 psig intake pressure.

Introduction At least one out of every 10 barrels of oil lifted in the world is produced using an Electric Submersible Pump (ESP). Typical installations produce liquids in the 2,000 to 20,000 bpd range, making the ESP an effective and economical means of lifting large volumes of fluids from great depths under a variety of well conditions. ESPs perform most efficiently when pumping a pure liquid. When gas is present in the fluid produced, the head generated by the pump decreases and ultimately gas locking may result. Different techniques (1,2) are available to allow ESPs to function in gassy well applications, including the normal case in which part of the gas is separated through the annulus. The handling of gas by an ESP is especially important in subsea completions, in horizontal completions, and in offshore applications with a packer when the annulus cannot be used to separate the gas. By pumping the gas together with the liquid, the gas increases the total volume of fluid that must be handled by the pump. Gas also decreases the bulk fluid density and causes flow anomalies within the impeller. Eventually the pump head decreases below its normal level, as the gas fraction at pumping conditions increases beyond certain critical values (normally about 10-15%). On the other hand, by actually pumping the gas rather than separating the gas, the resulting pressure drop in the tubing ultimately produces lower head and horsepower requirements for the ESP. Also, the fluid viscosity within the pump may be reduced as well. Consequently, an optimum
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design represents a good compromise between keeping the gas fraction low enough as to not cause problems with the electrical submersible pump, but high enough to have the advantages mentioned above. A submersible pump is usually selected by assuming that no slippage exists between the two phases, or by correcting pump stage performance based on actual field data and past experience. Although several ESP performance correlations are available, they are based on data obtained using intake pressures below 400 psig, and liquid flow rates less than 3500 bpd. These correlations do not consider either the hydraulic geometry of the pump stage, or its operating speed, and the data from which they were developed were gathered from pumps constructed with a limited number of stages. Therefore, making available better information about how ESPs perform when handling gas reduces this level of uncertainty. This is the main objective of the current research study. Our specific objectives are to generate experimental data on standard electric submersible pump performance as a function of the gas-liquid ratio, then correlate these data to predict the ESP headcapacity curve as a function of gas-liquid ratio, suction pressure, geometry and pump speed. Two-Phase Pump Performance Characteristics Many studies have been performed to determine how gas affects the flow within an impeller. Employing a single stage pump and using water and air as the test fluids, Murakami and Minemura(3) determined that the location and size of
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the admitting air orifices has only a slight effect on the pump performance when the pump speed changes within the range of 1020-2050 rpm. Their experimental pump intake conditions were atmospheric. When the air fraction is less than 4%, the air bubbles within the impeller are distributed uniformly and move through the pump without accumulation. At higher gas fractions, the motion of the air bubbles lags behind the water, causing a decrease in the head of the pump accompanied by fluctuations (discontinuities) and a corresponding frequency of about ten seconds. Murakami and Minemura(3) also recorded photographically the movement of the gas and associated flow patterns within the impeller, when the diameters of the gas bubbles inside the impeller were less than 0.5 mm. Increasing pump speed reduces this diameter and increasing gas fraction increases it. By increasing the pump speed, more gas is handled by the pump, probably because the gas phase is broken into finer bubbles at the entrance by the higher impeller speed. In any case, the maximum gas fraction at the intake for their study was below 12%. A gas bubble moving within an impeller is acted on by a number of forces caused by local pressure gradients, centrifugal and coriolis effects, flow path curvatures, and the viscous drag between the gas bubble and the surrounding liquid. The resulting force produces slip between the two phases (gas and liquid traveling at different velocities), possibly resulting in gas accumulation and/or stratification of the phases within the impeller channels. This tendency is reduced at higher liquid flow rates, requiring correspondingly higher gas fractions to produce this segregation of the phases(4). Patel and Rundstadler(5) concluded, from their measurements and observations conducted on the two-phase flow behavior of a 1/20-scale model of a pump, that the rate at which the pump performance degrades with inlet gas fraction is a function of the pump flow coefficient. Abrupt performance degradation, observed to the left of the best efficiency operating point (BEP), is due to a flow transition within the impeller from homogeneous bubbly to stratified, where large voids are formed within the pump impeller. At flow rates above the BEP, the performance degradation with increasing inlet gas fraction is more gradual, and no sudden transition in flow regime was observed. Lea and Bearden(6) tested three different pump stages (I42, C72 and K70 from Centrilift) handling a two-phase mixture. The first two were radial stages and the last one was a mixed stage. In each case, no pump with more than eight stages was tested. They worked with intake pressures from 20 to 400 psig, increasing the percentage of free gas to 40%. Diesel and CO2 were used as fluids, with
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water and air used for the lower intake pressure tests. The following conclusions were obtained from this study. - The performance of the pump is a function of the intake pressure and the gas fraction ingested into the pump. For a given gas fraction, there is less performance degradation as the intake pressure increases. - The head-flow characteristics of the pump become unstable when the gas present at the pump intake exceeds certain critical limits. The critical limit corresponding to the air-water tests performed at 25psig intake pressure was at approximately 10% gas by volume. For the Diesel-CO2 tests performed at 50 psig and higher intake pressures, the critical limit was found to be at about 15%. - Pump performance also depends on the stage geometry and hydraulic design. The mixed flow impeller style pumps handle gaseous flow better than the radial stage style pumps. Also, for similar intake pressures and gas fractions, pump operation was found to be more stable when operating to the right of the BEP. It has also been indicated(2) that the gas handling capability of the pump can be improved by operating the unit at a higher speed. Operators commonly use the variable speed controller to sense the onset of gas interference, speeding it up to improve the pumps chances of overcoming the gas interference, and then returning it to its preset operating speed. Increasing the speed of the pump increases the flow and the head in accordance with the pump affinity laws. This procedure essentially has the effect of temporarily oversizing and overstaging the pump(7). Turpin, et al.(8) presented two correlations based on the Lea and Bearden data(6). One correlation relates to the head deterioration and depends on the stage type. The correlation predicts an exponential decay of head with increasing free gas at the pump intake. The second correlation attempts to predict the pump stability through the Turpin factor , which is defined as: =2000(qg/ql)/3Pi (1)

Here, qg is the gas flow rate, ql is the liquid flow rate in the same units, and Pi is the intake pressure in psia. The Turpin equation requires a pump to operate with an intake pressure of 500 psia when producing a fluid that is 43% gas, and with an intake pressure of 100 psia to produce a fluid that is 13% gas.

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The Turpin factor attempts to predict stable pump operation when is less than 1 (i.e., the pump is predicted to handle the gas without significant degradation in its performance). Then the correlations presented in the paper can be used to calculate head-capacity performance for each pump type. Dunbar(9) produced a general correlation , based on experimental evidence (no indication is given about how the testing was performed or how the field data were used to establish it), to indicate that unstable pump operating conditions exist at lower pressures for a given gas-to-liquid ratio. Both the Dunbar and Turpin correlations show the same general trend, with the Turpin correlation being the less conservative. In summary, the results generated from these previous studies are limited in one form or another because they either apply only to a specific set of test conditions, or the correlations do not consider the hydraulic geometry of the stage or its operating speed. Finally, another shortcoming of the previous studies was that the experimental tests were conducted only on a limited number of pump stages. Experimental Facilities and Procedures A full-scale experimental system was designed and constructed in this study to enable acquiring new data on ESP performance with twophase flow. Tests were conducted at the Tulsa University Artificial Lift Projects (TUALP) facilities using water and air as fluids. The pump housing, each containing a different number of stages, is installed in the horizontal position. To evaluate the effect of the stage geometry and hydraulic design, the following REDA stages were tested at different conditions, all of them corresponding to a 540 series pump. Designation PumpType GN2100 GN4000 GN7000 Radial Mixed Mixed Stages 35 18 13 Range (bpd) 1650-2500 2500-5000 5000-9000

The number of stages was varied for the GN4000 pump. Tests with 18, 12 and 6 stages were made to determine how this parameter affects the pump performance under different conditions. Experiments were carried out at different intake pressures: 25, 100, 200, 300, 400, 450 and 500 psig. The liquid flow rate can be increased above 10000 bpd, and the gas flow rate was varied from 1,000 scfd up to 500,000 scfd. Tests were conducted at three different rotational speeds: 45, 55 and 65 Hz corresponding to 2650, 3250 and 3850 rpm.
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A simplified diagram of the TUALP experimental facility used in this study is shown in Figure 1. Water is supplied from a 500-bbl tank and is transferred to the test system by a booster centrifugal pump. A turbine flow meter measures the liquid flow rate passing through the test pump. A compressor supplies compressed air with the flow rate measured with an orifice flow meter. In some cases, for gas flow rates lower than 20,000 scfd and pressures below 100 psig, a rotameter is used. This also allows an indirect method of checking the accuracy of the orifice flow meter. Both phases are mixed together by passing through a inch screen. The mixed phases are injected into the entrance of the ESP. Mixing was performed in order to provide a more homogeneous mixture for the first pump stage of the pump stack. A 40 HP motor provides energy to drive the electrical submersible pump, and attached to the motor is a variable speed controller that allows the pump to operate at different rotational speeds. A torque measurement transducer, coupled between the motor and the pump, measures the torque and the pump rotational speed applied to the pump by the motor. The two-phase mixture coming from the test pump is separated in a horizontal drum. The liquid phase, by level control, is returned to the storage tank, and the gas phase, under pressure control, is vented to the atmosphere. The working temperature is slightly higher (about 15F) than the ambient temperature (from 70 to 115F) due to the heat generated by the experimental process. The test procedure consists of varying the liquid flow rate to achieve at least four, normally seven, experimental points on the pump performance curve for different combinations of intake pressure and gas fraction. The first step is to pressurize the system, using the booster pump. At this moment water runs through the ESP and the separator, and is returned to the storage tank. Then, the ESP is started while controlling the liquid flow rate. Liquid flow control is achieved by using a hand control valve (FCV-1). The testing intake pressure is maintained by supplying sufficient back pressure in the returning liquid flow line. This is accomplished by using a globe valve (PCV-1), located on the booster pump bypass flow line. Once the intake pressure and the liquid flow rate are set, gas injection begins, using a needle valve (FCV-2). Sufficient pressure in the gas supply line is maintained with a control valve (PCV-2). Repeated adjustments for the liquid flow rate and the intake pressure are necessary to reach the desired operational conditions. As data are acquired, the gas flow rate is increased until it is evident that either the

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pump performance degrades, surging begins or the pump becomes gas locked. In all cases, the following experimental measurements are taken only when steady state conditions are reached (normally about 2 minutes after the last adjustment is made): differential pressure, temperature and downstream pressure in the orifice flow meter for the gas flow rate pressure and temperature at the ESP suction and discharge locations, liquid flow rate, and torque and rpm applied to the ESP by the motor.

m =( a , a v q a , a v + w q w ) / ( q a , a v +q w )

(4)

where the average density for air between the pump inlet and outlet is determined by: a,av =P Z M/(RT) (5) Here P and T are the average values between the pump inlet and discharge, and Z is evaluated at these average values. M is the molecular weight of air (29 lb/lbmol) and R is the gas constant (10.73 psiaft3/R-lbmol). The air flow qa,av is calculated at the average conditions between the inlet and outlet. In Equation 4, w is density of water in lb/ft3. Finally, the efficiency, , of the pump for one stage is determined by: = nH ( q w +q a , a v ) m 1 0 0 /( B HP *6 2 .4 *3 9 6 0 )

The above measurements are repeated as many times as are necessary in order to cover the whole range of intake pressures, gas fractions and liquid flow rates for each of the three kinds of pumps. It is important to note that only stable data points are given, which means that when surging or gas locking occurs within the pump, the previous stable value is used as the limiting case corresponding to the given pumping conditions. Presentation and Reduction of Data. The experimental data are reduced to a form comparable with published performance curves including the pump head, pump efficiency, and pump horsepower values. The volume percentage of gas entering the first stage of the pump is given by: % g as = ( q a , i /( q a , i +q w ) ) *1 0 0 , (1)

(6)
The brake horsepower BHP supplied to the pump is read directly from the torque cell indicator. Results and Discussion All three pumps tested perform within acceptable limits for the head, brake horsepower, and efficiency, as defined in the API recommended Practice (11S2) for Electric Submersible Pump Testing(10). Unlike single-phase flow, two-phase flow yields several different interpretations for the flow rate through the pump. Several possibilities exist for defining the two-phase flow rate, specifically the corresponding liquid flow rate, the two-phase flow rate at the inlet conditions, or a flow rate at average conditions within the pump. The pump performance varies according to which flow rate definition is chosen. The liquid flow rate value is always below the flow rate that the pump actually handles. The mixture flow rate value (evaluated at inlet conditions, where the minimum pressure exists) is always higher than the flow that the pump actually sees. Thus, for this study a flow rate corresponding to the average conditions within the pump is selected as our independent variable. With this definition, most pump impellers operate within their specified range. Air was injected into the system through a hole located in the 3 liquid delivery pipe. The admitting orifice is located on top of the pipe and is 5 feet away from the pump inlet flange. A screen was inserted just before the pump inlet inside the flange. While some tests were conducted without the screen, a screen was used for the GN7000 pump tests. The GN4000 pump was tested using both and 3/32 screens, and the GN2100 pump
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where qw is the water flow rate, and the gas flow rate, qa,i, is the gas flow rate qa corrected to intake conditions: q a , i =q a Z( 1 4 .7 /P i ) ( T i / 5 2 0 ) (2)

Here, Z is the compressibility factor of the air at the intake conditions Pi and Ti , given in psia and R, respectively. The solubility of air in water is considered to be negligible for the range of experimental data up to 500 psia. In Equation 1, both flow rates must be in the same units. The head H (in ft/stage) delivered by the pump is calculated by: H= 1 4 4 * P /( n m ) (3) where P is the pressure increase through the pump in psi, while n is the number of stages installed in the pump for each case. Considering a homogeneous air-water mixture, m is the mixture density (lb/ft3) given by:
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was tested using a 3/32 screen. No differences were observed in the two-phase pump performance, when the pumps were operated under similar conditions, with or without the screen. Murakami and Minemura(3) reported the same results, where the location and size of the admitting air orifices had only a slight effect on the pump performance. In any case, upon entering the first pump impeller, the gas is dispersed into fine bubbles, and the bubbles are scattered uniformly in the flowing water. The two-phase experimental data points for the GN7000 pump are shown in Figures 2 to 5. The GN7000 pump used in our test incorporates 13 pump stages. The measured performance is compared to the single-phase liquid performance curve (corresponding to the smooth lines in Figures 2 to 5). The data collected were focused primarily within the recommended range of operation, and the pump speed was 3550 rpm. The figures show different values of free gas percentage at pump inlet conditions for a given intake pressure. Ideally, for a homogeneous two-phase mixture, with no slippage between the phases, the head deterioration should be negligible. Under these conditions the two- phase pump performance curves should agree with the single-phase liquid pump performance curves. This ideal case is only realize for gas fractions less than 5% and for intake pressures greater than 25 psig. The two-phase pump characteristics presented in these figures have interesting implications with regard to pump stability. For a fixed intake pressure, the pump performance reduces continuously as the gas fraction is increased. When exceeds certain limits, the pump performance collapses completely and no stable points are possible above this limit. Above this limit, the pump starts surging and eventually gas locks. This limiting gas fraction for pump stability is a function of intake pressure, and is 10% for 25 psig, 13% for 100, 24% for 300, and 28% for 450 psig. Also, a higher flow rate is needed to keep the pump stable at a given intake pressure and increasing gas percentage. Lea and Bearden(6) have observed similar behavior in their investigations of the effect of gaseous fluid on ESP performance. The pump was found to handle 15% gas over the whole recommended operating range, 5000-9000 bpd, for pressures above 200 psig. However, for values of greater than 20%, stable conditions can only be achieved when operating to the right of the best efficiency point. The effect of free gas on pump performance is especially dramatic at low flow rates. At a given gas percentage, there is a point (see Figure 6 for a better understanding) where the pump head increases with increasing flow rate. That is, the slope of the
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pump head-flow performance curve is positive. These points are close to where surging begins, and no additional stable points can be taken to the left of these points. Patel and Runstadler(5) have also reported that a positive slope in the pump characteristic curve could lead to pump surging. Figures 6 to 9 show the results of varying the free gas fraction for pump intake pressures of 25, 100, 300 and 500 psig for the GN4000 p u mp configured with 18 stages. Again, the pump performance is a function of both the percentage of free gas and the pump intake pressure. In general, the head generated by the pump degrades with increasing free gas fraction and decreasing pump intake pressure. When the inlet gas fractions increase to a certain point, the pump performance drops sharply. For certain inlet gas fractions(11,12), the local gas fraction rapidly increases along the flow channel (radial distribution in the impeller) due to an assumption that the two-phase flow regime changes into churn turbulent flow and the interfacial drag force becomes much smaller than that for bubbly flow case. Gas accumulation causes the flow area for the liquid phase (within the impeller) to become smaller. Therefore, from continuity considerations, the liquid phase has to move faster than the gas phase. The acceleration of the liquid phase(13) at the impeller outlet reduces the tangential component of the absolute velocity of the liquid and degrades the pumps two-phase head. This gas accumulation continues until it causes head degradation of the pump. Once the gas phase accumulates into a continuous path across the pump impeller, the pump can no longer generate any discharge pressure and gas locking occurs. The limiting values for stable flow for the GN4000 pump were measured to be 10% free gas at 25 psig, 12% free gas at 100 psig, 22% free gas at 300 psig and 27% free gas at 500 psig. Once again, the tendency of the two phases to separate or stratify within the impeller channels due to centrifugal forces acting normal to the flow is reduced at higher flow rates. This, as suggested by general flow pattern maps, is because the bubbles tend to disperse throughout the liquid phase resulting in a homogeneous two-phase flow. Therefore, higher gas fractions would be required to produce phase separation. Comparing the GN4000 pump to the GN7000 pump (mixed type), the GN7000 pump exhibits less deterioration in its head generated under similar operating conditions. Even more important, the GN7000 pump handles an additional 2-3% free gas under equivalent operational conditions without surging or gas locking. Thus, a highly mixed or axial pump flow design is expected to increase the
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pump's gas handling capability as observed by Furuya(11). The effects of variable speed drive are shown in Figure 10. The GN4000 pump with 18 stages was run at 2650, 3250 and 3850 rpm (45, 55 and 65 HZ, respectively) to investigate the effect of rotational speed on the pump's capability to handle gas. Little difference in a pump's performance and stability was observed by varying the pump speed over the tested range. Even though Figure 10 gives the impression of having less head deterioration at 65 HZ for 300 psig compared to the other speeds, this is because more head is developed at higher rotational speeds. Pump stability limits as a function of free gas are also similar, and essentially independent of the rotational speed as well. As a side comment, during the experiments, the pump operation was especially smooth for the 45 HZ data. The effect of varying the number of stages for the GN4000 pump is shown in Figure 11. Figure 11 clearly indicate that there is a definite trend of having less head deterioration with an increasing number of stages. This result is expected and comes from the fact that the later pump stages are handling a smaller fraction of free gas, and that they operate at correspondingly lower flow rates, and therefore develop higher head The results of the GN2100 radial pump containing 35 stages are shown in Figures 12 to 15. These figures contain data gathered over a range of inlet gas fractions with pump intake pressures of 25, 100, 300 and 500 psig. For these results, the recommended operating range for the pump is indicated by the vertical dotted lines. For free gas fractions less than 5% and intake pressures above 100 psig, the pump performance remains essentially equal to the singlephase performance curve. At 25 psig intake pressure, as the percentage of free gas reaches 5% percent by volume, the pump performance begins to degrade significantly until it becomes unstable, eventually losing its prime. This pump, when handling 5% gas at 2 5 p si g inlet condition, compresses the gas and expels a fluid that is 0.3% free gas at 700 psig. As discussed earlier, increasing the intake pressure improves the gas handling capability of the pump stack. The limiting values for stable operation for this kind of pump are 8% free gas at 100 psig, 15% free gas at 300 and 18% free gas at 500 psig intake pressure. These limiting values are lower than those found for the mixed flow type pumps. In addition, at a gas fraction equal to or greater than 10% free gas, the pump operation becomes uneven and exhibits head fluctuations for certain flow rates. This situation occurs at flow rates less than the flow rate at the design point, 2100 bpd.
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Again, due to a difference in the phase densities, the water is subject to a larger centrifugal force than the air. Consequently, the water phase, which is accelerated faster than the gas phase, contributes to the major part of head degradation. Furuya(12) has indicated that the effect of centrifugal force on the head degradation also seems to explain the more severe head degradation for the radial flow pump (compared to the mixed pump), in which the centrifugal force is the major head generation force. This specific pump has a flow range limitation for free gas fractions greater than 10 %, and is unable to process more than 18% free gas at 500 psig inlet pressure. The application of radial type pumps to situations with more than 10% gas volume is therefore not recommended. For all three pumps tested, it was observed that the ability of a pump to handle free gas increases as the intake pressure increases. There are several reasons why this might be true. For example, higher pressures produce increased gas densities, which in turn result in lower surface tensions. For example an increase of inlet pressure from 25 to 500 psig results in a 10% reduction in the surface tension (assuming all other operational conditions remain constant). In addition to surface tension, it is expected that changes in gas viscosity will also influence bubble size, and thereby a pumps ability to handle free gas. Walter and Blanch(14) found that bubble size decreases with decreasing surface tension, and also decreases slightly with increasing gas viscosity. Both of these effects occur simultaneously when the pumps intake pressure is increased. Therefore, it is expected that increasing a pumps intake pressure decreases the average bubble size within a pumps impeller, and therefore extends the range of stable flow(15). This behavior is confirmed by the experimental data gathered in this study. In summary, the physical concepts developed in this study qualitatively explain the data trends observed. However, extending these concepts to allow quantitative predictions of two-phase pump characteristics is a complex task and has not been attempted here. The range of the experimental data corresponds to common operational conditions. One possible limitation of the experimental data relates to the influence of the hydrocarbon fluid properties on two-phase pump performance. Specifically, variations in the interfacial tension would tend to generate a different flow pattern inside the pump impellers, thereby affecting pump performance. Conclusions 1.All three pumps tested performed within acceptable limits for head, brake horsepower and efficiency, as defined in the API recommended
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Practice (11S2) for Electric Submersible Pump Testing for single-phase flow. 2.Phase mixing before the pump inlet (using several different screen sizes) produced no differences in the two-phase pump performance, when the pumps were operated under similar conditions. 3.For mixed type pumps with inlet gas fractions less than 5% and intake pressures higher than 100 psig, the two-phase pump performance curves are similar to the single-phase liquid pump performance curves. 4.For a fixed intake pressure, the two-phase pump performance reduces continuously as the gas fraction is increased. The maximum gas fraction that also allows pump stability is a function of both the intake pressure and the pump geometry. It was found that this limit is around 28% for the mixed type pumps and 18% for the radial pump at 500 psig intake pressure. 5.A higher flow rate is needed to stabilize a pump for increasing gas fraction at similar intake pressures. However, this effect is limited, especially for the radial pump which can handle that most 5% free gas over its recommended operating range. 6.The experimental data indirectly support the existence of three flow regimes within an electric submersible pump: a dispersed bubble flow regime without slippage between the phases at low gas fractions producing single-phase pump performance; a bubbly flow pattern producing higher head degradation for intermediate gas fractions; and a churn turbulent flow pattern that occurs at higher inlet gas fractions and causes surging and eventually gas locking. 7.The GN7000 pump exhibits less head deterioration than the GN4000 pump under similar conditions. Even more important, the GN7000 pump handles an additional 2-3% free gas under equivalent operational conditions without surging or gas locking. Consequently, this supports the conclusion that a highly mixed pump flow design is expected to increase a pumps gas handling capability. 8.Little difference in the pumps performance and stability was observed by varying the pump speed between 2650 and 3850 rpm (45 to 65 HZ). Recommendations 1.Avoid radial type pumps in situations with more than 10% free gas. 2.Even though it was not an objective of this project, enough horsepower data were taken to determine the efficiency of an ESP for two-phase flow. Analysis of this data, along with the tubing performance, could be used to calculate a system's global performance and thereby an optimal design.
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3.A general dynamic model for two-phase flow through an electric submersible pump should be developed using the data gathered in the study. References 1. Wilson, B.L., ESPs and Gas, SPE Gulf Coast Workshop, Houston, April 28, 1993 2. Sheth, K., Bearden, J.L., Free Gas and a Submersible Centrifugal Pump Application Guidelines, SPE Gulf Coast Workshop, Houston, May 1-3, 1996 3. Murakami, M., Minemura, K., Effects of Entrained Air on the Performance of a Centrifugal Pump, Bulletin of the JSME, Vol. 17, No.110, 1974, pp.1047-1055 4. Zakem, S., Determination of Gas Accumulation and Two-Phase Slip Velocity Ratio in a Rotating Impeller, Symposium on Polyphase Flow and Transport Technology, California, Aug. 1980, pp. 167-173 5 Patel, B.R., Rundstadler, P.W., Investigations into the Two-phase Flow Behavior of centrifugal Pumps, ASME Symposium on Polyphase Flow in Turbomachinery, San Francisco, Dec. 10-15, 1978 6 Lea, J.F., Bearden, J. L., Effect of Gaseous Fluids on Submersible Pump Performance, paper SPE 9218 presented at the SPE 55th Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, Sept. 21-24,1980 7. Wilson, B.L., ESP Gas Separators Affect on Run Life, SPE paper # 28526, 1994 8. Turpin, J.L., Lea, J.F., Bearden, J.L., Gas-Liquid Through Centrifugal Pumps - Correlation of data, Third International Pump Symposium, Texas A&M University, May 1986 9. Dunbar, C.E., Determination of Proper Type of Gas Separator, Microcomputer Applications in Artificial Lift Workshop SPE Los Angeles Basin Section, Oct. 15-17, 1989. 10. API Practice 11S2, Recommended Practice for Electric Submersible Pump Testing, Second Edition, August 1997. 11. Furuya, O., An Analytical Model for Prediction of Two-Phase (Noncondensable) Flow Pump Performance, Journal of Fluids Engineering, March 1985, Vol. 107, pp. 139-147 12. Minemura, K., Uchiyama, T., Shoda, S., Egashira, K., Prediction of Air-Water Two-Phase Performance of a Centrifugal Pump Based on OneDimensional Two-Fluid Model, Journal of Fluids Engineering, June 1998, Vol. 120, pp. 327-334 13. Noghrehkar, G., Kawaji, M., Chan, A., Nakamura, K., Kukita, Y., Investigation of Centrifugal Pump Performance Under Two-Phase Flow Conditions, Journal of Fluids Engineering, March 1995, Vol. 117, pp. 129-137 14. Walter, J.F., Blanch, H.W., Bubble Break-up in Gas-Liquid Bioreactors: Break-up in Turbulent
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Flows, The Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 32, 1986, pp.B7-B17 15. Sachdeva, R., Two-Phase Flow Through Electric Submersible Pumps, PhD dissertation, University of Tulsa, 1988

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