Multiphase Pumping: Achievements and Perspectives

Abstract : Multiphase pumping receive now a widespread acceptance of the oil industry. The paper describes the state of the art performance of the helico-axial technology invented and developed by the Institut français du pétrole (IFP). The size of the installed pumps has considerably increased as the industry gained confidence with the accumulation of field experience, both onshore and offshore. A single pump can rate up to 6 MW to-date, and helico-axial pumps are the largest multiphase pumps manufactured in the world. Further research works are still performed at IFP to improve the helico-axial pump performance but also to develop new applications of multiphase turbomachines: sour gas re-injection in solution, wet gas compressors, two-phase turbines. The paper describes the main axes of works and the methodologies applied for these developments. The most advanced experimental and computational techniques are used: laser Doppler anemometry on the experimental side, two-phase CFD simulation and shape optimisation by neural network and genetic algorithm on the design and calculation side.