Detailed Experimental Characterisation of Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Slug Flow in Horizontal Pipes

Author(s):  
Carlos E. F. do Amaral ◽  
Fernando Castillo ◽  
Marco José da Silva ◽  
Eduardo N. Santos ◽  
Rigoberto E. M. Morales

Two phase flow occurs in many applications in industry, mainly in the transport of mixtures in pipes. The identification of these patterns is of fundamental importance in the design of piping systems and equipments. In this scenario, this work proposes an experimental study to identify multiphase flow patterns of water and air in horizontal tubes. The study was developed using an experimental circuit of 26 mm diameter and 9.2 m length pipe, at Thermal Sciences Lab at Federal Technological University of Paraná. To characterize the parameters one used an intrusive mesh electrodes sensor, a tomographic technique that allows details of the distribution of phases with good temporal and special resolution. Tests were conducted using several experimental settings of water and gas superficial flows, mostly with slug flow characteristics. Measurements were compared to models and the temporal void fraction series were analyzed to produce bubble velocity and frequency information, showing the characteristics for each two-phase pattern.

Author(s):  
Samet Ekinci ◽  
T. B. Aydin ◽  
C. Sarica ◽  
E. Pereyra ◽  
T. Kim

An experimental study of the inclination angle (±2° from horizontal) effects on high viscosity oil and gas two-phase flow has been conducted, and the available multiphase flow models/correlations have been evaluated using the acquired data. The effect of pipe inclination on the slug flow characteristics of highly viscous oil-gas two-phase flow was studied based on 1,040 data points covering a wide range of experimental conditions and liquid viscosities in a 50.8-mm-ID pipe at 2° downward and upward inclinations from horizontal. The oil viscosity ranged from 155 cP to 587 cP. Superficial liquid and gas velocities varied from 0.1 m/s to 0.8 m/s and from 0.1 m/s to 5 m/s, respectively. The basic two-phase flow parameters and slug flow characteristics have been analyzed and compared with the past studies conducted for near horizontal pipes.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Gang Liu ◽  
Zongrui Hao ◽  
Yueshe Wang ◽  
Wanlong Ren

The dynamic responses of simply supported horizontal pipes conveying gas-liquid two-phase slug flow are explored. The intermittent characteristics of slug flow parameters are mainly considered to analyze the dynamic model of the piping system. The results show that the variations of the midpoint transverse displacement could vary from periodic-like motion to a kind of motion whose amplitude increases as time goes on if increasing the superficial gas velocity. Meanwhile, the dynamic responses have certain relations with the vibration acceleration. By analyzing the parameters in the power spectrum densities of vibration acceleration such as the number of predominant frequencies and the amplitude of each peak frequency, the dynamic behaviors of the piping system like periodicity could be calculated expediently.


Author(s):  
Hideo Ide ◽  
Kentaro Satonaka ◽  
Tohru Fukano

Experiments were performed to obtain, analyze and clarify the mean void fraction, the mean liquid holdup, and the liquid slug velocity and the air-water two-phase flow patterns in horizontal rectangular microchannels, with the dimensions equal to 1.0 mm width × 0.1 mm depth, and 1.0 mm width × 0.2 mm depth, respectively. The flow patterns such as bubble flow, slug flow and annular flow were observed. The microchannel data showed similar data patterns compared to those in minichannels with the width of 1∼10mm and the depth of 1mm which we had previously reported on. However, in a 1.0 × 0.1 mm microchannel, the mean holdup and the base film thickness in annular flow showed larger values because the effects of liquid viscosity and surface tension on the holdup and void fraction dominate. The remarkable flow characteristics of rivulet flow and the flow with a partial dry out of the channel inner wall were observed in slug flow and annular flow patterns in the microchannel of 0.1 mm depth.


Author(s):  
Carlos H. Romero ◽  
María A. Márquez ◽  
Sissi D. Vergara ◽  
María T. Valecillos

Two phase slug flow is the most common flow pattern for horizontal and near-horizontal pipelines. This study is designed to determine experimental velocities of elongated bubbles, lengths of liquid slugs and elongated bubbles, and slug frequencies for twenty flow rates combinations of a two phase air-water system that belong to a slug type pattern in horizontal pipes with a non invasive electronic device made of Photo-diodes (emitter) and photo-transistors (receiver) in a non visible length wave of 940 nanometers. The non intrusive electronic device is validated by simultaneously taking pictures with a high speed camera, (Kodak model Ektapro 4540 mx Imager, at shooting speed of 4500 frames per second, the picture resolution is 256 × 256 pixels), through a visualization cell filled with glycerin. This work is done with acrylic pipes of 0,03175 m inner diameter, to ensure complete flow development, the pictures are taken from a visualization cell located at a x/D = 249, the electronic device is located at x/D = 250. Air superficial velocity ranged between 0.156 and 0.468 m/s while water superficial velocity ranged between 0.159 and 1.264m/s. It is found that the non intrusive electronic device formed by photo diodes and photo transistors is an accurate technique that can be used in the determination of elongated bubble velocities, lengths and slug frequencies.


1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Gopal ◽  
W. P. Jepson

This paper reports the application of novel, digital image analysis techniques in the study of slug flow characteristics, under dynamic conditions in two-phase gas-liquid mixtures. Water and an oil of viscosity 18 cP were used for the liquid phase and carbon dioxide was used for the gas phase. Flow in a 75-mm i.d., 10-m long acrylic pipeline system was studied. Images of slugs were recorded on video by S-VHS cameras, using an audio-visual mixer. Each image was then digitized frame-by-frame and analyzed on a SGI™ workstation. Detailed slug characteristics, including liquid film heights, slug translational velocity, mixing length, and, slug length, were obtained.


Author(s):  
Suat Bagci ◽  
Adel Al-Shareef

Abstract Two-phase flow in hilly terrain pipelines can cause significant practical operating problems. When slugs flow in a hilly terrain pipeline that contains sections of different inclinations they undergo a change of length and slug flow characteristics as the slug move from section to section. In addition, slugs can be generated at low elbows, dissipate at top elbows and shrink or grow in length as they travel along the pipe. A mathematical model and a computer program was developed to simulate these phenomena. The model was based on the sink/source concept at the pipeline connections. A connection between two pipeline sections of different slopes was conveniently called elbow. An elbow accumulates liquid as a sink, and releases liquid as a source. The sink/source has a characteristic capacity of its own. This capacity is positive if the liquid can indeed be accumulated at the elbow or negative if the liquid is actually drained away from the elbow. This type of treatment effectively isolates the flow upstream from an elbow from that downstream, while still allowing flow interactions between two detailed pipeline sections. The hydrodynamic flow model was also used to calculate the film liquid holdup in horizontal and inclined pipelines. The model can successfully predict the liquid film holdup if the liquid film height is assumed to be uniform through the gas pocket. Many other models were used to calculate all the needed parameters to perform the sink/source model. The overall effect of a hill or terrain on slug flow depends on the operating flow rates and pipeline configurations. For special case of near constant slug frequency corresponding to moderately high superficial liquid and gas velocities, this effect was found to be small. The changes in the film characteristics between two adjacent pipeline sections were found to be mostly responsible for the pseudo-slug generation, slug growth and dissipation in the downstream pipeline sections. The film liquid holdup decreased with increasing pipe diameter. The unit slug length increased at the upstream inclined pipes and decreased at the downstream inclined pipes with increasing pipe diameter. The possibility of pseudo-slug generation was increased at large pipe diameters even at high sink capacities. At low sink capacities, no pseudo-slugs were generated at high superficial velocities. The slug flow characteristics was more effected by low superficial gas and liquid velocities, large pipe diameters and shallow pipeline inclinations.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 842
Author(s):  
Tea-Woo Kim ◽  
Nam-Sub Woo ◽  
Sang-Mok Han ◽  
Young-Ju Kim

The accurate prediction of pressure loss for two-phase slug flow in pipes with a simple and powerful methodology has been desired. The calculation of pressure loss has generally been performed by complicated mechanistic models, most of which require the iteration of many variables. The objective of this study is to optimize the previously proposed simplified slug flow model for horizontal pipes, extending the applicability to turbulent flow conditions, i.e., high mixture Reynolds number and near horizontal pipes. The velocity field previously measured by particle image velocimetry further supports the suggested slug flow model which neglects the pressure loss in the liquid film region. A suitable prediction of slug characteristics such as slug liquid holdup and translational velocity (or flow coefficient) is required to advance the accuracy of calculated pressure loss. Therefore, the proper correlations of slug liquid holdup, flow coefficient, and friction factor are identified and utilized to calculate the pressure gradient for horizontal and near horizontal pipes. The optimized model presents a fair agreement with 2191 existing experimental data (0.001 ≤ μL ≤ 0.995 Pa∙s, 7 ≤ ReM ≤ 227,007 and −9 ≤ θ ≤ 9), showing −3% and 0.991 as values of the average relative error and the coefficient of determination, respectively.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document