As the Oil & Gas industry evolves, costs and pricing pressures are a significant 21st century consideration. Optimization efforts to achieve savings and increase outputs show incredible returns due to technology advances. Flownex® Simulation Environment is the main techno-logical advance that the industry can employ across the entire supply chain, to analyze and optimize plant design and existing infrastructure to maximize potential outputs efficiently

and cost effectively.

BOOSTING OUTPUT & INCREASINGEFFICIENCY THROUGH SIMULATION

OIL & GAS

Flownex® Simulation Environment delivers technology that enables you to analyze how systems concerned with fluid motion and heat transfer will behave during actual operation.

Flownex® system simulation relays the overall effect of changing specific properties of components, allowing clients to examine extensively all possible variations of a system in the design and optimization thereof.

Flownex® is developed in an ISO 9001:2008 and NQA1 quality assu- rance system environment. Flownex® is the only software of its kind to hold a nuclear accreditation, a testament to the quality, reliability and accuracy of our simulation software.

On a global scale leading organizations apply our software and service offerings to achieve maximum potential of their systems both in design and operational states. Our promise of fast, reliable and accurate system and subsystem level simulation has immense-ly benefited our clients. The use of Flownex® has set our clients apart from their competitors allowing them to pursue frontiers of engineering simulation. The global demand for Flownex® has shown exponential growth over the last few years, and as more organizations adopt our technology we are continuously striving to push the boundaries in system simulation.

FLOWNEX® IS USED ACROSS THE ENTIRE OIL & GAS SUPPLY CHAIN ON THE FOLLOWING SUB-SYSTEM TYPES:

Gas circulation, compression & transport.

Lubrication circulation, pumping & cooling.

Main supply pipelines & distribution networks.

Pressure maintaining & monitoring processes.

Heat exchanger & temperature maintaining systems.

Efficiently test and evaluate planned upgrades by effortlessly running multiple scenarios to ensure every possible angle is investigated.

Quickly determine the root cause of system inefficiencies and unexpected response.

Accurately predict system response to operational procedures, control scenarios and accident scenarios by running transient simulations.

FLOWNEX®

PROVIDES THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY WITH THE ABILITY TO:

I am not aware of any other tool with which I could have obtained the required results in such a short time span. Part of the success must undoubtedly be attributed to the prompt and high level support provided by Flownex® International almost daily in answering all my questions and offering suggestions throughout this very technically challenging simulation. The support fee has been paid for with this one project!

Hannes van der WaltSenior Thermal & Process EngineerGasco

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Slurry circulation systems.

Hydraulic pressure circuits.

Thermal hydraulic processes.

Boilers and condensing systems.

Unloading and loading terminals.

Bulk storage and transfer systems.

Flow control & metering systems.

Control station & SCADA systems.

Fluid circuits & transport equipment.

Flownex® uses nodes and elements to represent a thermal-fluid network graphically as shown (left).

SIMULATION APPROACH

Elements include pipes, pumps, valves, compres-sors or heat exchangers, while nodes are the end points of elements. The elements are connected at common nodes to form a network. Flownex® solves the momentum equation in each element and the continuity and energy equation at each node. This gives Flownex® a pseudo CFD capability, which allows it to predict complex phenomena such as pressure and temperature waves in pipes and buoyancy effects in packed beds.

CHALLENGE: Pressure regulators are to be employed at a gas-fired power station to reduce upstream gas pressures from a maximum of 15 MPa to approximately 3.5 MPa. Due to the Joule-Thompson effect, the resulting gas temperature drops could be in the region of 55 °C. The dew-point temperature of the hydrocarbons (gas) flowing through is -15 °C and the minimum ambient temperature of the area is -6 °C, thus the regulators could potentially be subjected to gas at -61 °C at start-up. According to the valve manufacturer, temperatures as low as -20 °C can be tolerated for some time, provided that condensation does not occur.

SOLUTION: Operation of the pressure regulators during the start-up of the turbines at a gas-fired power station was studied and simulated in Flownex®. The major advantage of using Flownex® is that the capacitance of the pipe material and the full JouleThompson effect could be simulated. The simulations established that the regulator internals would be exposed to extremely cold gas for an extended period of time. The model was also able to determine if the proposed trace heating and insulation system would be sufficient to prevent the valve internals from cooling below their minimum temperature limit of -20 °C, with a reasonable safety factor taken into account.

USING FLOWNEX® THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY CAN: SIMULATE, PREDICT, OPTIMIZE OUTPUT AND REALIZE SIGNIFICANT SAVINGS.

GAS TURBINE START-UP

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Simulate and design large transcontinental oil and gas pipelines as well as small bore distribution networks.

The built-in Flownex® library supports an array of components and pipes used in the industry to build pipelines and networks.

Heat transfer through various layers of insulation and other materials.

Transient operating scenarios such as start-up, shut-down and pressure surge (water hammer).

Flownex® can import .PCF files.

Pipeline elevation changes and geographical data are taken into account.

No limitation on pipeline size.

Add to the design of loading/unloading facilities, optimize for a variety of vessels, tank volumes, pump selection, pipe sizing.

Valve station design as well as control philosophy optimization.

Oil tanker loading/unloading.

Determine pumping procedures.

Optimize valve settings for both on the ship and at the onshore pumping and valve stations.

Determine water ballast pumping procedures in order to maintain ship trim during the loading/unloading.

Flownex®’s Graphical User Interface can be coupled to the simulation models and used for operator training as well as on site scenario simulation.

Simulation of pipeline valve and metering stations can be done using the built-in library of industry components.

Customization of valves by including manufacturer’s data is possible.

Pressure drops across metering stations can be measured.

Oil and natural gas as well as their refined products need to be transported from well to refinery to end consumer. This can be done in a variety of ways which include transport-ing by means of piping.

PIPELINE TRANSPORTATION

Flownex® is capable of the following simulation in Oil & Gas transportation:

OIL & GAS NET- WORK VALVES & METERS

OIL TRANSPORTATION

CHALLENGE: A client in the petro-chemical industry sought help with regards to a fired heater employed on a plant. The client wished to perform thermal fatigue and stress analysis on the heater, especially during transient oper-ating conditions such as start-up and on-off cyclic operations, where the possibility for large temperature gradients exists.

Due to the length of transcontinental oil and gas pipelines (in some cases 1000 km +), pumping/compressor stations are required along the length of the pipeline. These stations are required to increase the pressure and to achieve the desired flow rate through the pipeline. For oil pipelines, centrifugal pumps are normally used, while for gas pipelines centrifugal or positive displacement compressors are used.

Flownex® is capable of the following simulation in oil and gas pipeline pump/ compressor stations:

Simulating pumping/compression setups aids testing of specific equipment manufacturer flow characteristics for component selection.

Non-standard components such as separators and filters can be simulated using manufacturer’s data to set up compound components.

Simulate heat transfer with a variety of heat exchangers enables efficient design of heat exchangers required.

Simulate cold start or cold ambient temperature operation & heat transfer.

Simulation and design optimization of lubricating oil systems and cooling.

Sensitivity studies to determine the optimum operating point of a system.

Flownex® can optimize the control and start-up/shut-down procedures with the simulation of accident or trip scenarios.

The Flownex® Graphical User Interface can be set up and used by operating personnel to determine operating procedures.

OIL PUMPING & GAS COMPRESSION

GAS FIRED HEATER INSULATED PIPE

The exact operating conditions of all cycles could be pre-programmed as a scenario by using Flownex® Actions and saved. They could then be recalled for simulation at any point. In transient simulation of the problem, the full effect of the piping material thermal capaci-tance was taken into account for more accurate results. Temperature profiles could be auto-matically generated by using graphs within Flownex®, which reduces the amount of post-processing. The findings enabled the client company to perform thermal fatigue and stress analysis on the heater coil.

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Simulate these systems and the Flownex® designer capability can be used to design and optimize their efficiency.

Pressure distribution, optimize heater and cooler sizes and optimum selection of pumps and valves.

Establish control philosophies to improve on new and existing designs.

Analyze the effects of temperature on the viscosity in lubricating and hydraulic oil systems.

Determine the influence of environ-mental temperature changes on cooling systems.

Flownex® can be used for the design and optimization of fire protection systems.

Flownex® allows easy modeling of the systems using the standard component library.

Flownex® designer can then be used for design and optimization of the system.

The transient simulation capability can be utilized to simulate different fire protection system operating scenarios.Water hammer pressure reduction and cavitation prevention.

Control of emergency sequence scenarios.

Oil and gas exploration rigs are hazardous environments and are governed by strict safety regulations. Due to the combustible nature of oil and gas, fire protection is an important aspect for safety on exploration rigs.

Flownex® is capable of the following simulation in Fire protection systems:

HYDRAULIC & COOLING EQUIPMENT

FIRE PROTECTIONSYSTEMS

Filter unit

Low pressureOil pump

Oil heater

Oil cooler

JackingOil pump

Manual jackingoil pump

Jacking oil relieve valve

Low pressure bypass line

Bearing casing

Shaft

Circulatingcooling water

Flownex® is capable of the following simulation in Hydraulic & Cooling systems:

PRODUCTION

On a producing well, typically the completion decision involves production casing being run in, installation of well head and connection of a Christmas tree (series of safety pressure valves, flow controlling valves and instrumentation). Depending on the type of reservoir formation and “reservoir drive”, the extraction of the oil or natural gas may be done using different methods.

Simulate the thermal hydraulic aspects of oil and natural gas mixtures, as well as the temperature dependence of oil’s viscosity enables the user to simulate and design the required heating and pumping capacity for primary, secondary and tertiary recovery.

Simulation ability to handle multiple fluids and two phase fluids also make Flownex® ideal for cogeneration plants and steam heating & injection processes used in tertiary recovery methods.

Flownex® is capable of the following simulation on the Christmas Tree:

Model Chocked flow condi-tions and simulate different valve characteristics accord-ing to various manufacturer’s data. Including simulation of pressure relief, pressure regu-lating and flow control valve scenarios.

Model and address dynamic pressure surges (water hammer) resulting from valve closure/ opening or operation.

Flownex® is capable of the following simulation on the Gathering System:

Flownex® can simulate and design the gathering system and storage plant using the built in library of pipe schedules and diameters, pipe roughness, pipe losses (elbows, contractions expansions, inlet and outlet losses etc.) as well as valve, pump, compressor and tank components.

Flownex® has the ability to do tank level tracking, to determine production and storage scheduling and applies a control library for control simulation applications.

CHRISTMAS TREE

GA

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G SY

STEM

Flownex® is capable of the following simulation in Oil & Gas production:

Swivel

Kelly

Drill pipe

Mud pump

Stand pipe

Discharge

Mud suction line

Mud mixer

Reserve pit

Drill collar

Shale shaker

Rotary hose

Mud pit

Mud return line

Bit

Annulus

DRILLING MUDCIRCULATION SYSTEM

Hydraulic calculation of the slurry circulation system.

Mapping pressure drops and the effects upon solid particle settlement and deposition in the recirculating mud system.

Providing information to minimize blockages and also enabling accurate selection of pumps and pressure control equipment.

Study and optimize the down-hole pressures for prolonging drill bit life and mitigating broken bits, broken strings and tripping.

Kill Choke

Simulate blowouts and kicks to study dynamic effect of surges and water hammer.

Simulate well kill process to overcome down-hole pressure surges.

Analyze drilling mud return rate simulations, to detect early warning signs of blowouts and kicks and simulate the pressure release using BOP.

Model fluid characteristics such as density changes and flow which occur with pressure fluctuations.

BLOWOUTPREVENTER

(BOP)

Flownex® is capable of the following simulation in BOP systems:

Flownex® is capable of the follow-ing simulation in mud circulation systems:

Flownex®’s two phase capability can be utilized to simulate and design natural gas liquefaction and regasification plants, which may include compressors, turbines, pumps, pipe work, valves, heat exchangers and plant insulation. Flownex® also has the ability to simulate choked flow conditions in gas systems which may be encountered during some operating or accident scenarios at these plants.

An integral part of liquefaction of natural gas is insulation. Flownex® has the ability to simulate multi-layer insulation as well as the ability to determine the effect of thermal inertia and cross conduction in insulation and other materials on the heat transfer to and from the gas.

Flownex® can be used to simulate the complete cycle, from well to consumer, making Flownex® ideally suited for designing oil and gas supply systems, operating procedures and control philosophies.

Combining the engineering model with Flownex®’s Graphical User Interface, allows the ability for scenario simulation modeling tools as well as a tool which can be used for operator training purposes.

GAS LIQUEFACTION / REGASIFICATION

CONTROLSTATIONS & SCADASYSTEMS

CRUDE OIL PUMPINGSTATION

REFINERIES

JET FUEL

MOTOR GASOLINE

OTHER

RESIDUEL FUEL OIL

LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM

REFINERIES PRODUCTSSUPPLIED

NATURAL GASLIQUIDS

UNFINISHED OILS &BLENDING COMPONENTS

IMPORTS

CONTROL CENTRE

DISTILLATEFUEL OIL

SLURRY SIMULATION

The Flownex® slurry flow module deals with the following three aspects:

Settling slurries in horizontal, inclined and vertical pipe segments.

Centrifugal pump derating factors for pumps operating with either non-Newtonian fluids or settling slurries.

Non-settling slurries, especially non- Newtonian mixtures as found in mud circulation systems.

We employ master’s- and PhD-level qualified engi-neers to develop and support Flownex® guiding you on how to more effectively use our software tools and maximize your return on investment.

Speed Accuracy Reliability Design Simulate Optimize

Initial development.

Development of the Implicit Pressure Correction Method (IPCM) algorithm.

Aircraft engine combustion systems for Rolls-Royce.

Transient/Dynamic simulations.

HTGR simulation.

Gas mixtures & conduction.

Object oriented.

Rotating components.

Two phase.

Combustion.

Equation element, API.

Control & electric, MS Excel.

Simulation Environment, in-condensables.

Slurry, expanded combustion.

Expanded two-phase, expanded heat transfer, trace elements, RELAP coupling.

Gas turbine secondary flow modelling, steam turbine modelling, GIS importing and coordinate system drawing, supersonic flow, simplified scripting, visualization & graphing, 3D drawing & importing.

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Flownex® Simulation Environment enables engi-neers to predict, design and optimize for flow rates, pressures, temperature and heat transfer rates in fluid systems. Such systems include anything from ventilation systems and water and gas distribution systems up to boiler designs and complete power generation cycles.

The ability to simulate systems with any combination of liquid, gas, two phase, slurry and mixture flows in both steady state and dynamic cases makes Flownex® the most powerful simulation tool of its kind.

Flownex® is sold around the globe (visit our site for resellers in your area). www.flownex.com

PHY

SICS / C

OM

PON

ENTS

COREMODULES

LIBRARYMODULES

INTEGRATIONMODULES

Basic thermal

fluid module

Advanced fluid

thermal module

Design and

analysis module

Transient

module

Nuclear

module

Control

module

Electrical

module

Extendability

module

EES module

OPC module

Relap Module

MathCad

module

API module

Basic Flownex component library

Basic heat transfer

Advanced heat transfer

Turbo secondary flow

Combustion

Reactors

Control library

Electrical library

Compound components

INTEG

RATION

&A

UTO

MATIO

NAlarms

Scripting

Excel component

Relap coupling

EES coupling

Mathcad coupling

API

OPC

TOO

LS

Designer

Optimizer

Sensitivity analysis

Visualization

Result tools

Flow solver

Transient solver

Extendability

FLUID

MO

DELS

Liquid

Gas

Gas mixtures

Incondensable

Slurry

Two-phase

Trace elements

SOLV

ER