Fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe

Intermittent flows in vertical pipes occur in many industrial settings including power generation and downstream oil-and gas production. This type of flows include cap bubble, slug and churn flow regimes. These regimes are of interest as downstream processes and control may heavily depend on the int...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Omar, Rajab Abulgasem, Hewakandamby, Buddhika N., Azzi, Abdelwahid, Azzopardi, Barry J.
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51568/
_version_ 1848798525519822848
author Omar, Rajab Abulgasem
Hewakandamby, Buddhika N.
Azzi, Abdelwahid
Azzopardi, Barry J.
author_facet Omar, Rajab Abulgasem
Hewakandamby, Buddhika N.
Azzi, Abdelwahid
Azzopardi, Barry J.
author_sort Omar, Rajab Abulgasem
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Intermittent flows in vertical pipes occur in many industrial settings including power generation and downstream oil-and gas production. This type of flows include cap bubble, slug and churn flow regimes. These regimes are of interest as downstream processes and control may heavily depend on the intermittency of the inflow. There are a number of correlations that predicts the features in such flows in vertical pipes. Most of the correlations were developed for air and water fluid pair for slug flow regime in vertical pipes with 25 to 50 mm inner diameter. In this paper, an attempt has been made to assess the suitability of several of these correlations specific to slug flow regime for a fluid pair that is different to air-water system. In this work, air-silicone oil flow development was experimentally investigated in a vertical pipe with an inner diameter of 68mm. A Wire Mesh Sensor (WMS) and an Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) sensor were installed in series at four locations (15D, 30D, 45D and 65D) downstream of the mixing section. The flow was visually observed using a high speed camera. The void fraction time series obtained from the WMS and the ECT were used to establish the flow characteristics such as slug length, slug frequency, void fraction in liquid slugs and Taylor bubble velocity. A comparison showed that the void fraction measurements using ECT and WMS are in good agreement. Axial measurements shows that the flow development beyond 45D is minimal. Change in physical properties of the liquid phase is responsible for the deviation associated with the existing slug flow models, particularly those developed to predict the gas holdup in liquid slugs.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:21:09Z
format Article
id nottingham-51568
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:21:09Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Elsevier
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-515682020-05-04T19:49:15Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51568/ Fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe Omar, Rajab Abulgasem Hewakandamby, Buddhika N. Azzi, Abdelwahid Azzopardi, Barry J. Intermittent flows in vertical pipes occur in many industrial settings including power generation and downstream oil-and gas production. This type of flows include cap bubble, slug and churn flow regimes. These regimes are of interest as downstream processes and control may heavily depend on the intermittency of the inflow. There are a number of correlations that predicts the features in such flows in vertical pipes. Most of the correlations were developed for air and water fluid pair for slug flow regime in vertical pipes with 25 to 50 mm inner diameter. In this paper, an attempt has been made to assess the suitability of several of these correlations specific to slug flow regime for a fluid pair that is different to air-water system. In this work, air-silicone oil flow development was experimentally investigated in a vertical pipe with an inner diameter of 68mm. A Wire Mesh Sensor (WMS) and an Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) sensor were installed in series at four locations (15D, 30D, 45D and 65D) downstream of the mixing section. The flow was visually observed using a high speed camera. The void fraction time series obtained from the WMS and the ECT were used to establish the flow characteristics such as slug length, slug frequency, void fraction in liquid slugs and Taylor bubble velocity. A comparison showed that the void fraction measurements using ECT and WMS are in good agreement. Axial measurements shows that the flow development beyond 45D is minimal. Change in physical properties of the liquid phase is responsible for the deviation associated with the existing slug flow models, particularly those developed to predict the gas holdup in liquid slugs. Elsevier 2018-09-21 Article PeerReviewed Omar, Rajab Abulgasem, Hewakandamby, Buddhika N., Azzi, Abdelwahid and Azzopardi, Barry J. (2018) Fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe. Chemical Engineering Science, 187 . pp. 377-390. ISSN 1873-4405 Two-phase flow; Slug flow; Electrical Capacitance Tomography; Wire Mesh Sensor; Flow development https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2018.04.075 doi:10.1016/j.ces.2018.04.075 doi:10.1016/j.ces.2018.04.075
spellingShingle Two-phase flow; Slug flow; Electrical Capacitance Tomography; Wire Mesh Sensor; Flow development
Omar, Rajab Abulgasem
Hewakandamby, Buddhika N.
Azzi, Abdelwahid
Azzopardi, Barry J.
Fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe
title Fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe
title_full Fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe
title_fullStr Fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe
title_full_unstemmed Fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe
title_short Fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe
title_sort fluid structure behaviour in gas-oil two-phase flow in a moderately large diameter vertical pipe
topic Two-phase flow; Slug flow; Electrical Capacitance Tomography; Wire Mesh Sensor; Flow development
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51568/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51568/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51568/