Based on PVM image gray level data to analysis the effect of N-vinyl caprolactam on hydrate growth

The usage of hydrate inhibitors is an effective method to solve the problem of flow assurance in deep-water pipelines. However, the mechanism of hydrate formation and transformation in inhibitor-containing systems is not well understood, and the research methodology needs to be innovated. In this study, a possible mechanism of wearing away during hydrate particle transformation was proposed for the first time, based on the hydrate growth process in the system containing the kinetic inhibitor N-vinyl caprolactam monomer. A method to analysed the hydrate growth and transformation dynamics through the change of gray level in the image was proposed. And the hydrate growth process was divided into three different stages based on the trend analysis of the gray level data of the images,trends in the dynamics of hydrate particle growth within the bulk phase corresponding to changes in gray level were verified. On this basis, the effects of stirring rate, subcooling and the monomer concentration of the NVCap on the growth of hydrates were discussed, and it was suggested that there might be differences in the mechanisms exhibited by the inhibitor at different growth stages of hydrates. In this study, the process of analysing the internal growth dynamics of hydrate systems through image gray levels was reported for the first time, and its trend changes corresponding to hydrate growth dynamics were verified, which proved the feasibility of this method, and this study provides an innovative research methodology and idea for the study of the dynamics of hydrate generation and transformation.