Flow instability in producing well at flash-steam fields

Abstract

Theoretical foundations are presented for forecasting operation instability of producing wells at flash-steam fields. The considered topic gains actuality because of the new conditions for developing geothermal power industry which call for solicitous use of the wells fund. Instability mechanism is considered: increased discharge results in the growth of the force generating the flow, which in turn results in still higher discharge. The force grows due to weakening of gravitational component which counteracts the flow in the result of depletion in the density of flash-steam mixture. It is demonstrated that due to the specifics of development of such instability in a geothermal well the reaction of well foot pressure to change in the discharge cannot influence the stability in any effective way, while the reaction of wellhead pressure may work as a stabilizing factor. Principal weaknesses are pointed out of former ideas on flow instability in flash-steam wells. The condition of stable flow should be the positive value of the derivative on discharge of the internal well foot pressure defined as the sum of wellhead and internal pressure drop.

The author is grateful to V.А.Droznin and I.I.Chernev for discussing the issues of flow stability in flash-steam geothermal wells. The study was conducted with financial support of the Russian Fund for Fundamental Research within the scope of Scientific Project No.16-05-00398 а