CFD study on Energy Promoter insertion for drag reduction in oil pipelines

In oil and gas industry, transportation of crude oil from terminal to terminal has cost companies enormous amount of money in order to restore back pressure which is lost due to the inner surface friction of the pipeline through pumping operation. In this study, it proposed that a small section of pipeline with energy promoter is added to the pipeline in order to achieve drag reduction effect. CFD Simulation was used to study the drag reduction at various number and configurations of energy promoters. Mesh independence study was conducted to ensure the integrity of the result. The dimension and shape of the energy promoter to learn the relationship between the variable and the drag reduction percentage. ANSYS CFX was used to simulate the flow inside the pipeline with a section of energy promoter embedded at the inner wall. The pipeline with energy promoter is modelled using Solidworks and imported to ANSYS CFX Fluid Flow to undergo simulation. The results obtained were compared with the empirical table to ensure the validity of the simulation procedure. Pressure loss at the outlet will become the parameter to be compared in the case of pipeline with energy promoter and energy promote. Through CFD study, drag reduction effect has been discovered with insertion of Energy Promoter and encouraging results are obtained when the Energy Promoters are arranged in reverse direction with 2mm height. The maximum drag reduction efficiency of energy promoter is approximately 7% and it is possible to further push the boundary for drag reduction efficiency limit. In summary, it is feasible to reduce drag in flow through insertion of energy promoter