Study on the influence of coconut oil on flow pattern and pressure drop of two-phase swirl flow

In view of the widespread existence of swirl flow in surfactant systems in oil drilling, gas gathering, and gathering pipelines, surfactants can affect interfacial tension and thus change the flow pattern. In order to further study and master the swirl flow characteristics in surfactant systems, this experimental investigation was presented, focused on gas–liquid flow during swirl flow, and aiming to evaluate the effect of surfactant in flow patterns. The experimental medium was air and water, the swirler was a vane and the surfactant was natural coconut oil. The purity of coconut oil was 99.9%, and the concentration was 100–900 ppm. The surface tension of the surfactant solution was measured using a surface tension meter to determine the concentration of the coconut oil solution at the minimum surface tension. By analyzing the flow characteristics of the gas–liquid interface with a high-resolution camera, the flow pattern of the gas–liquid two-phase swirl flow under the surfactant system was divided into the swirl linear flow, the swirl wave stratified flow, the swirl axial flow, and the swirl dispersed flow. Compared with the gas–liquid two-phase flow swirl flow pattern without surfactant, it was found that the swirl bubble flow and the swirl slug flow were not present, which was related to the stability of the gas–liquid interface weakened by the decrease of surface tension between the gas and liquid. The effects of flow pattern, gas content, vane parameters, surfactant concentration and flow rate on pressure drop were systematically investigated. Finally, based on the experimental data, we modified the pressure drop model of the gas–liquid two-phase swirl flow under the surfactant system with the vane as the spinner. The calculated value of the pressure drop model agrees well with the experimental data. This model can provide technical support for the safe operation of oil and gas pipelines.