An open challenge related to subsea well compression is avoiding surges and slugs into a wet gas compressor station. A Flow Conditioning Unit (FCU) helps to dampen the sudden changes that are caused by variations in multiphase flow patterns. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) transient simulations are performed on a high-performance computing cloud to verify and improve the design of the FCU in terms of sizing and liquid handling capacity. The simulations are performed using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method, employing adaptive meshing approach to simulate complex gas liquid dynamics under various flow conditions. Ultimately, these simulations lead to optimized design of the FCU unit and its test facility. Furthermore, multiphase CFD simulations are further utilized during large scale experiments for better understanding of observed flow behavior.

Some of the phenomena to be shown are large liquid entrainment in gas harp and the presence of gas in liquid draining lines.

This work shares details on the CFD simulations performed, including the mesh size development, wall-time required, and post-processing tools utilized. However, the focus is to show how an industrial actor leverages CFD tools to iterate on expensive testing infrastructure, thereby reducing risk and cost.