You must log in to edit PetroWiki. Help with editing
Content of PetroWiki is intended for personal use only and to supplement, not replace, engineering judgment. SPE disclaims any and all liability for your use of such content. More information
Nonhomogeneous Two-Phase Flow in Pipes
Introduction
This type of flow is the most popular in pipes and wellbores. It results from the flowing phases having different in-situ velocities, namely, a nonzero slippage. In the case of gas-liquid flow, slippage is defined as the difference between gas and liquid in-situ velocities as follows,
In this case, the phases arrange in different types of flow patterns. Identifying the existing flow pattern in a pipe segment is the key for pressure drop and temperature profile predictions.
Nonhomogeneous Two-Phase Flow Models
Emperical Models
The empirical models use experimental data to correlate between dimensionless numbers. These models are short of capturing the physics of the flow, however, some of them are widely used in the industry, especially for steady-state flow, due to their simplicity.
Mechanistic Models
These models are more conserved to the physics of the flow and involve a hierarchy of mixed analytical solutions and empirical models. These models are more conservative to physics than the empirical models and are more accurate especially for those evaluated against experimental data. "To be simple, the mechanistic modeling approach captures the dominant physical phenomena and ignores the less important ones. Since mechanistic modeling simplifies nature, the resulting model must be verified by experiments to ensure its accuracy. " (Alsafran and Brill, 2017). Mechanistic models are widely used in the industry within code that simplifies the solution procedure.
Flow Calculation Procedure For Steady-State Flow
Al-Safran and Brill (2017) summarize the flow calculation procedure for the steady-state case as shown in fig. (1). The inputs for each pipe segment include fluid properties, pipe configuration, and flow conditions. The inputs are fed into the calculation models to identify flow patterns, based on the flow pattern, other calculation models are used to flow characteristics, e.g. liquid holdup and slug properties (if applicable). Then, the pressure gradient is found. In the case of a nonadiabatic flow, an iterative procedure is used to identify the temperature profile.
Flow Patterns
The flow pattern is the geometric distribution of flow phases in the radial and the axial direction along the pipe. The main observed flow patterns observed in horizontal and near-horizontal pipes are dispersed, stratified, intermittent, and annular flows. Fig. (2) shows the two-phase flow patterns in horizontal and near-horizontal pipelines.
Dispersed Bubble Flow
Occurs at the high liquid to gas flow rates. Due to the high liquid flow rate, the inertia forces of liquid significantly overcome the effects of interfacial tension of the gas. This leads the gas to shatter into small babbles. Also, the inertia forces of the liquid significantly overcome the buoyancy forces of the gas, which allows the gas bubble to disperse in all radial directions even at the bottom of the horizontal pipes. The gas bubbles are found to move at almost the same in-situ velocity as the liquid. Therefore, this flow pattern is effectively approximated with homogeneous flow models.
Intermittent Flow
At lower liquid velocities relative to gas velocities, gas aggregates into large bubbles and move close to the top of the pipe inner wall. The following forms of intermittent flow patterns exist: 1. Plug Flow: made of short gas pockets separated with liquid plugs of low or no gas entrainments. 2. Slug Flow: made of longer gas pockets referred to as "Taylor bubbles" separated with liquid slugs of considerable gas entranments. 3. Pseudo-slug flow: Made of intermittent huge liquid waves.
Stratified Flow
In this flow, the liquid moves as a continuous film at the pipe bottom while the gas moves in a continuous passage above it. The interfacial surface might be smooth "Stratified Smooth" or contains small interfacial waves that formes "Stratified Wavy" flow.