화학공학소재연구정보센터
Heat Transfer Engineering, Vol.30, No.4, 309-315, 2009
Study of Hydrate Formation Kinetics in Petroleum Pipes by the Phase Field
We report the influence of phase field parameters on the modeling of gas hydrates formation. Also, the interface of the surface tension, super-cooling, and homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation on the interface morphology and growing kinetics is evaluated. The mathematical model consists of simultaneous energy and phase field equations and is solved using the finite volume method. Results indicated that decreasing the surface tension leads to an increase of interface roughness and higher interface instability. It is also observed that an increase in the surface tension occurs together with an increase of surface thickness and lower growing kinetics. In this case, to promote the hydrate growth, it is necessary to impose a super-cooling of 2 K. Regarding homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation, two conditions were simulated: a random distribution of nuclei, where the evolution of hydrate formation shows the occurrence of coalescence and the growing kinetics of coalesced was lightly decreased in comparison to the isolated portions of the hydrate; and heterogeneous nucleation along all the extension of the wall, where hydrate grows inward, the liquid region by mean of a homogeneous advance of the interface. In this paper, a model is reported that can be used to predict the hydrate growth process and asses parameters that are difficult to obtain experimentally.