Numerical simulation on flow behaviors of CCl₃F hydrate slurry in pipelines

In this paper, a CFD/Fluent model was established to simulate the flow behaviors of CCl₃F (R11) hydrate slurry in horizontal pipelines. The simulated pressure drop is in good agreement with the experimental data, with relative errors less than 20%. Simulation analysis was performed on the flow behaviors of hydrate particles inside pipelines, and the results indicated that hydrate plugs could be avoided effectively by controlling the flow velocity. And based on simulation, the deposition characteristics of R11 hydrate particles are more influenced by flow velocity. When the mean velocity reaches a certain value, the deposition characteristics of hydrate particles are little impacted by their volume fraction, and the mean velocity is defined as the minimum flow velocity for safe operation of pipelines. The effect of other key parameters of hydrate slurry on the minimum flow velocity was also investigated, including particle density and diameter, and pipe diameter. Results show that the minimum flow velocity is more affected by the hydrate particle diameter, but less by the hydrate particle density and the pipe diameter.