Numerical Simulation of Wax Deposition of Natural Gas in Orifice Plate Throttle Valve

Hong-bo GU , Yong-xing ZHANG , Xiao-ling CHEN , Long LI , Chuan-jiang TAN

Science Technology and Engineering ›› 2025, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (24) : 10210 -10217.

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Science Technology and Engineering ›› 2025, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (24) : 10210-10217 DOI: 10.12404/j.issn.1671-1815.2406286
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Numerical Simulation of Wax Deposition of Natural Gas in Orifice Plate Throttle Valve
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Abstract

The condensation and precipitation of wax crystals from wax-containing natural gas potentially impair pipeline efficiency, gas field gathering and production operations by causing clogging at the throttling valve. The complexity of wax precipitation leading to final deposition in wax-containing natural gas encompasses nucleation, growth, precipitation, deposition, and stripping of wax crystals. Utilizing a computational fluid dynamics(CFD) approach within the Eulerian-Lagrangian framework, the entire process of nucleation, growth, deposition, and stripping following the throttling of wax-containing natural gas was comprehensively examined. Also, the deposition within various orifice plate throttle configurations was investigated. The findings indicate that the maximum deposition in single-orifice plate, double-orifice plate, and wedge-shaped throttle systems increase with rising inlet pressure. However, the deposition rate decreases as the inlet pressure increases. Among these configurations, the wedge-shaped throttle exhibits the lowest deposition rate under equivalent throttling conditions. Furthermore, deposition patterns are influenced by the flow trajectory, with the single-orifice plate throttle primarily showing deposition in the throat's outlet region and approximately 0.1 m downstream, forming a ring-like annular distribution. In contrast, the double-orifice plate and wedge-shaped throttles display deposition patterns resembling shockwave-like parabolic distributions along the fluid flow direction. Overall, the deposition band width decreases with increasing pressure.

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waxy natural gas / throttle valve / wax deposition law / numerical simulation

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Hong-bo GU, Yong-xing ZHANG, Xiao-ling CHEN, Long LI, Chuan-jiang TAN. Numerical Simulation of Wax Deposition of Natural Gas in Orifice Plate Throttle Valve. Science Technology and Engineering, 2025, 25(24): 10210-10217 DOI:10.12404/j.issn.1671-1815.2406286

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