Study of Conventional Plunger Lift in Horizontal Wells

The design of a conventional plunger lift system consists of selecting a plunger type, determining a bumper spring setting depth, and estimation of controller set points to cycle a motor valve. The motivation for the project lies in the fact that there is no design software capable to perform aforementioned calculations. Consequently, the objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive software to simulate a conventional plunger lift and Gas Assisted Plunger Lift (GAPL) systems. The approach to accomplish the objective is to conduct a detailed study of plunger upward and downward movement utilizing a smart plunger and high-speed video. The expected deliverables include a new set of high resolution experimental data for different plunger types and stages of plunger lift. The acquired knowledge will be deployed in a software package capable of providing design parameters for plunger deployment, machine learning methodology to analyze routine plunger lift data and optimize the cycles.

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