Scaling of flow loops based on the Bingham plastic model

Research has always been a very important part of the petroleum industry. However the increased technical requirements combined with the present environmental and safety regulations, lead to the necessity of extensive experimentation and measurements that would assist the companies in the development of new scientific methods and technologies. Obviously the ability to test and simulate at real borehole scale would give the most accurate results. Unfortunately such models are neither practical nor economically feasible. Therefore the development of multiphase flow loops is required, which resemble almost exactly the behavior and conditions of a real wellbore. The design and realization of hydraulic flow loops presents a serious challenge. A series of numerical simulations should be performed to end up with realistic conditions. It´s impossible to construct a flow loop which would match all possible real life situations. No model will fulfill exactly the conditions met in real oil and gas wells. Therefore the development should be concentrated on an exact purpose and the design should be fitted to these criteria. This paper will generally summarize the steps in the design of multiphase flow loops in terms of the hydraulics. Since less has been written on the topic it will provide a useful guide in the process of downscaling real well conditions. The paper will also give a general overview about the mathematical modeling used to determine the optimal scaling factors for the invention of the model.