Prediction of Slug Liquid Holdup in Horizontal Pipes

Abstract

Slug liquid holdup is a critical parameter of slug flow, which influences the average liquid holdup and pressure drop along pipelines. The objective of this study is to develop a new correlation to predict slug liquid holdup in horizontal pipes. A large data set with wide ranges of operational, geometrical, and physical property parameters was used to develop the new correlation. The new correlation is a function of one independent mechanistic dimensionless variable, namely, the momentum transfer rate between the slug body and the liquid film. Physical modeling and statistical analyses suggested the appropriateness of the dimensionless momentum transfer rate as an independent parameter, which accounts for a large part of the variation in slug liquid holdup. A correlation validation and comparison study showed the accuracy of the new correlation. The statistical evaluation of the correlation resulted in an average percent relative error and percent standard deviation of 4.1% and 2.4%, respectively. Furthermore, the developed correlation was compared with other correlations and showed superior performance among all correlations, with the lowest relative performance factor of 0.01.

Effect of Particle Size and Liquid Viscosity on Erosion in Annular and Slug Flow

“…Many of these originally published correlations are documented by Pereyra et al [14]. Recently, Al-Safran [15] predicted the slug liquid hold-up based on a single dimensionless variable. He found that the slug liquid hold-up is best correlated with the momentum transfer rate between slug body and the Taylor bubble region.…”

Investigating the Characteristics of Two-Phase Flow Using Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) for Three Pipe Orientations

“…This is because it is usually used to provide a hydrodynamic similarity between different systems [43]. Considering experimental observations in this work and others [54][55][56], ε (L) takes a non-linear form and, hence, the relation between ε (L) and Reynold numbers can be expressed as follows:…”

State of the Art of Experimental Studies and Predictive Methods for Slug Liquid Holdup

“…Unfortunately, the program 1. developed in this study for this correlation does not properly match the results of original publication, thus this correlation has not been included in this analysis. Al-Safran [14] study is the only one providing the uncertainty of the slug liquid holdup prediction, which is required for proper design and confidence level analysis. This study quantifies the uncertainty of all the published methods considered.…”

“…A large set of data were used to validate the developed correlation Considering the momentum required to accelerate the slow moving liquid film to the slug velocity in the slug front, Al-Safran [14] proposed a semi mechanistic model based on the dimensionless momenttim transfer rate, as follows:…”