Analysis of the Oil Flowing Process on the Basis of von Kármán Vortex Streets

In this paper, the local vortex flows of oil transported through main product pipelines are analyzed on the basis of von Kármán vortex streets. The vortex flow analysis is based on the modeling of hydrodynamics by the Ansys Fluent software package. The simulation of local vortex flows is based on the shear-stress transport (SST) model, representing a combination of two k–ε and k–ω turbulence models. It is proven that, at specified oil-flow parameters and characteristics, it is possible to organize local vortex flows in the center
of a pipeline. The estimation of hydraulic drags in the zone of the von Kármán vortex streets indicates that they can be decreased. On the other hand, the analysis of overall pressure losses evidences that drag losses are predominant in the case of flowing around vortex-generating devices, requiring the search for other methods to organize local vortex flows or overcome drag losses by using the resources of multifunctional units in oiltransport processes.