Equalizing Well Pressure Drop with Swirl Chambers

Abstract The present paper is concerned with a numerical study of swirl flows applied as a pressure equalization means in an inflow control devices (ICD) setup. The system discussed includes an isolated mechanical flow path that is designed as a conical channel through which the produced fluids are injected with a tangential inlet. The system forms a swirl chamber that generates a swirling flow that decays along the flow path. The active swirl part arrangement could be mounted in serial sections along the flow path to maintain the swirl properties of the flow over the desired distance. The swirl motion generates a pressure drop that is related to the length, gap width, and tangential inlet size of the swirl element. The present work presents a numerical investigation of this system by studying the primary flow variables using a finite difference method. The numerical results revealed the flow nature and the resulting pressure drops with regard to the flow system variables.