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For more than 40 years, state-of-the-art technical solutions to fluid dynamics and multiphase flow problems for the oil and gas industry have been provided by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).

Material samples are used to simulate the porosity of rock to evaluate novel drilling fluids.	High pressure and near-freezing temperatures in deep-water environments may result in hydrate and paraffin blockages in pipelines, restricting oil and gas flow. This multiphase flow facility at SwRI is used to simulate field conditions for flow assurance studies and other multiphase flow research.

SwRI engineers have successfully completed a wide variety of projects ranging from efficient and safe extraction of fossil fuels to delivery of oil and gas goods to consumers.

SwRI-developed tests determine the erosion resistance of sand control screens used in oil field applications. Air-sand and water-sand systems for simulating appropriate downhole conditions are available at SwRI.	To increase oil production in wells, a subsurface processing and reinjection compressor was designed to separate, compress, and reinject gas. Above is a rapid prototype model of some of the machinery.

SwRI has provided numerous technical solutions to problems arising in oil and gas drilling and completion operations, including:

	Researchers remove natural gas hydrates from a pipeline during field testing. Using the test results, SwRI engineers developed hydrate remediation techniques applicable to land-based and offshore operations.
	SwRI has extensive experience with computer models for designing hardware systems.

• Sand control screen plugging and erosion testing

• Gravel packing methods

• Novel drilling fluids

• Prototype design and hardware fabrication

• Downhole equipment design and delivery

• Deviated wellbore cleaning

• Fall velocities of drill cuttings

SwRI has also provided a diverse array of oil and gas production solutions, including work in the following areas:

• Multiphase and wet gas metering

• Hydrate blockage and remediation

• Flow assurance

• Separation and mixing

• Multiphase pump testing

• Subsea pipeline design

For more information about fluid dynamics and multiphase flow capabilities at SwRI or how you can contract with SwRI, please e-mail fluids@swri.org or call (210) 522-3520.
 

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Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is a multidisciplinary, independent, nonprofit, applied engineering and physical sciences research and development organization with 11 technical divisions.

October 01, 2008