A MODEL OF ARTIFICIAL GAS LIFT AND ITS APPLICATION IN A REAL-TIME SIMULATOR
A novel Plastic Bag algorithm is applied to analysis of artificial gas lift (AGL) dynamics. The system dynamics is given by partial differential equations (PDE). The developed model based on the fundamental physical principles is presented along with the oil and gas correlations used in the PDE model. An application of this model to a real-time simulator that is used in a hardware-in-the-loop setup is presented. It is shown that high performance of the developed algorithm and the possibility of using it in real-time simulations are achieved thorough the synchronous discretization of the PDE equations with respect to time and space. Results of the solution, such as existence of oscillations in oil and gas flow and pressures in some operating modes, which is revealed as a slugged flow, and absence of any oscillations in other operating modes, are discussed. Some new unstable operating modes are identified, which must be avoided. The produceд results well correlate with the experimental data available for artificial gas lift systems.