TUALP Facilities

The TU Artificial Lift Projects (TUALP) research facilities are located on a three acre tract of land on TU's North Campus, about two miles north of the main campus.  TUALP has five buildings, three test facilities, and a test well. The main building, a 2,000 square foot building known as the Artificial Lift Project Instrument Engineering building (or ALPINE House), includes a shop for light mechanical work and an electronics and instrumentation laboratory. The other five buildings on the tract are directly used for the physical tasks of experimentation. One is a 500 square foot welding shop used for all heavy construction and assembly work. Other buildings house the instruments for a two-phase flow loop, the gas-lift valve test facility, the test well and the rotary gas separator test facility.

Test Facilities

Full scale, operational field equipment is used for all experimentation, thereby making results directly applicable to members' needs. Present test facilities include the following:

test well
2,360 ft deep test well with 10-3/4 inch casing
pumping unit
Pumping units (Morgan and a Lufkin Mark II)
85 ft tower
85 ft tall tower for testing hydraulic, jet, and electric submersible pumps
big compressor
Two-phase flow loops to supply these facilities with pressure and liquid
gas lift
A gas-lift valve test facility capable of measuring flow performance characteristics of valves
electric submersible pump
An electric submersible pump for testing the effects of gas on the pump's performance
50 ft angle adjustable tower
An electrical submersible pump assembly attached to 50 ft angle-adjustable tower to study the effect of inclination on natural separation efficiency in ESP assembly