ABSTRACT
A laboratory investigation was conducted to provide data necessary to better predict the behavior of gas lift plungers. A test well was instrumented to provide pressure, velocity, and volumetric information during the fall and rise cycle of a variety of commercially available plungers. A substantial data bank has been compiled and behavior of 13 different plunger configurations has been characterized by gas slippage, liquid fallback, and fall velocity. Performance characteristics of the individual plungers has been incorporated in a modified Foss and Gaul2 mathematical model which provides predicted minimum casing pressure in close agreement with actual laboratory tests.
As a second part of the evaluation program, actual field data was collected from four field locations with a variety of operating conditions. The correlations developed for the laboratory tests were then adjusted to fit field data. The final correlations and equations describing plunger lift operations have been included in a computer program that can be used for design and analysis of plunger lift operations.
