Gas lift is considered the most important artificial method in the oil and gas industry. Although, there are several components in the Gas Lift Valve (GLV), the ball and the seats are the only two adjustable components. The objective of this study is to maximize the gas throughput using the new design seats of partially curved design (PCD) and wholly curved design (WCD) to increase oil production.

Five main seat designs were evaluated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD): The Sharp Edge, modified design, the optimized design, Partially Curved Design and Wholly Curved Design. The modified design and the optimized design have been previously evaluated. However, PCD and WCD are evaluated in this research. To maximize the gas throughput, seven seat sizes and five different ball sizes have been selected in this simulation study. Each seat has Port Bottom Diameter (PBD) and Port Top Diameter (PTD). The criterion of the best case is to have the highest gas throughput.

The CFD results showed that PCD has 11% higher gas throughput than the modified design at the ball size 6/16 inches, PBD 5/16 inches and PTD 7/16 inches. Also, WCD has 6% higher gas throughput than the optimized design at the ball size 7/16 inches, PBD 6/16 inches and PTD 8/16 inches. The results also demonstrated that the best design seat is the Wholly Curved Design compared to the others when the PBD, PTD and stem travel are 5/16 in, 7/16 in and 5/16 in, respectively resulting in the highest gas flow rate of 0.65 kg/s. The novelty of this research is describing four different GLV designs, two of which were created. Additionally, the results show the effect of each of the adjustable GLV components: PBD, PTD, and stem travel.