Evaluation of frictional pressure drop correlations for air-water and air-oil two-phase flow in pipeline-riser system

Accurate prediction of the frictional pressure drop is important for the design and operation of subsea oil and gas transporting system considering the length of the pipeline. The applicability of the correlations to pipeline-riser flow needs evaluation since the flow condition in pipeline-riser is quite different from the original data where they were derived from. In the present study, a comprehensive evaluation of 24prevailing correlation in predicting frictional pressure drop is carried out based on experimentally measured data of air-water and air-oil two-phase flows in pipeline-riser. Experiments are performed in a system having different configuration of pipeline-riser with the inclination of the downcomer varied from-2°to-5°to investigated the effect of the elbow on the frictional pressure drop in the riser. The inlet gas velocity ranges from 0.03 to 6.2 m/s, and liquid velocity varies from 0.02 to 1.3 m/s. A total of885 experimental data points including 782 on air-water flows and 103 on air-oil flows are obtained and used to access the prediction ability of the correlations. Comparison of the predicted results with the measured data indicate that a majority of the investigated correlations under-predict the pressure drop on severe slugging. The result of this study highlights the requirement of new method considering the effect of pipe layout on the frictional pressure drop.

Experiments on two-phase flow in hydraulic jump on pebbled rough bed:Part 1–Turbulence properties and particle chord time and length

This study reported and discussed turbulence characteristics,such as turbulence intensity,correlation time scales,and advective length scales.The characteristic air–water time scale,including the particle chord time and length and their probability density functions(PDFs),was investigated.The results demonstrated that turbulence intensity was relatively greater on a rough bed in the roller length,whereas further downstream,the decay rate was higher.In addition,the relationship between turbulence intensity and dimensionless bubble count rate reflected an increase in turbulence intensity associated with the number of entrained particles.Triple decomposition analysis(TDA)was performed to determine the contributions of slow and fast turbulent components.The TDA results indicated that,regardless of bed type and inflow conditions,the sum of the band-pass(T'_(u))and high-pass(T″_(u))filtered turbulence intensities was equal to the turbulence intensity of the raw signal data(T_(u)).T″_(u) highlighted a higher turbulence intensity and larger vorticities on the rough bed for an identical inflow Froude number.Additional TDA results were presented in terms of the interfacial velocity,auto-and cross-correlation time scales,and longitudinal advection length scale,with the effects of low-and high-frequency signal components on each highlighted parameter.The analysis of the air chord time indicated an increase in the proportion of small bubbles moving downstream.The second part of this research focused on the basic properties of particle grouping and clustering.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF 3-D DENSE SOLID-LIQUID TWO-PHASE TURBULENT FLOW IN A NON-CLOGGING MUD PUMP

A mathematical model is set to evaluate the 3-D dense solid-liquid two-phaseturbulent flow in a non-clogging mud pump, the flow feature in the impeller channel is simulatedwith the tool of IPSA. Meanwhile, resort to TECPLOT as the post-processor, the simulation results isvisualized. The results show the main flow characteristics: There exists backflow and aberrantvelocities at inlet area and a relative velocity slip between two phases; A jet-wake flow pattern isdiscerned around the shroud-suction side area; The relative velocity vector of solid phase iscloser to the pressure surface than that of liquid phase and the trend is more obvious with theincrease of diameter; The kinetic energy of turbulence k and the dissipation rate e reach theirpeaks at the corner of pressure and suction surface. The simulation results show a good agreementwith the experimental flow features in the impeller channel, which prove the turbulent model used isvalid and provide a theoretical design basis to non-clogging pumps.

IMPROVED SUBGRID SCALE MODEL FOR DENSE TURBULENT SOLID-LIQUID TWO-PHASE FLOWS

The dense solid-phase governing equations for two-phase flows are obtained by using the kinetic theory of gas molecules.Assuming that the solid-phase velocity distributions obey the Maxwell equations,the collision term for particles under dense two-phase flow conditions is also derived. In comparison with the governing equations of a dilute two-phase flow,the solid-particle's governing equations are developed for a dense turbulent solid-liquid flow by adopting some relevant terms from the dilute two-phase governing equations.Based on Cauchy-Helmholtz theorem and Smagorinsky model, a second-order dynamic sub-grid-scale(SGS)model,in which the sub-grid-scale stress is a function of both the strain-rate tensor and the rotation-rate tensor,is proposed to model the two-phase governing equations by applying dimension analyses.Applying the SIMPLEC algorithm and staggering grid system to the two-phase discretized governing equations and employing the slip boundary conditions on the walls,the velocity and pressure fields,and the volumetric concentration are calculated.The simulation results are in a fairly good agreement with experimental data in two operating cases in a conduit with a rectangular cross-section and these comparisons imply that these models are practical.

Deduction and Validation of an Eulerian-Eulerian Model for Turbulent Dilute Two-Phase Flows by Means of the Phase Indicator Function-Disperse Elements Probability Density Function

A statistical formalism overcoming some conceptual and practical difficulties arising in existing two-phase flow (2PHF) mathematical modelling has been applied to propose a model for dilute 2PHF turbulent Hows. Phase interaction terms with a clear physical meaning enter the equations and the formalism provides some guidelines for the avoidance of closure assumptions or the rational approximation of these terms. Continuous phase averaged continuity, momentum, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulence dissipation rate equations have been rigorously and systematically obtained in a single step. These equations display a structure similar to that for single-phase flows. It is also assumed that dispersed phase dynamics is well described by a probability density function (pdf) equation and Eulerian continuity, momentum and fluctuating kinetic energy equations for the dispersed phase are deduced. An extension of the standard k-e turbulence model for the continuous phase is used. A gradient transport model is adopted for the dispersed phase fluctuating fluxes of momentum and kinetic energy at the non-colliding, large inertia limit. This model is then used to predict the behaviour of three axisymmetric turbulent jets of air laden with solid particles varying in size and concentration. Qualitative and quantitative numerical predictions compare reasonably well with the three different sets of experimental results, studying the influence of particle size, loading ratio and flow confinement velocity.

Design and Experimental Analyses of Small-flow High-head Centrifugal-vortex Pump for Gas-Liquid Two-phase Mixture

The design method of small-flow high-head centrifugal-vortex pump was presented. This pump, configured with inducer, complex-centrifugal impeller and open-vortex impeller, was put forward to deliver gas-liquid two-phase mixture. An HTB-5/60 type sample pump was developed and tested on a closed-loop test rig. Experimental studies on performance and cavitation tests for gas-liquid two-phase mixture were carried out compared with pure-water experimental results. Also the effect of gas phase on pump was analyzed and discussed. The experimental results show that performance and cavitation characteristics of the sample purnp deteriorates progressively with increasing volume fraction of gas. When the total capacity Qm is between 4.5 m^3·h^-1 and 6 m^3·h^-1 and the gas flow rate qg below 0.66 m^3·h^-1, or qg/Qm is lower than 15%, the characteristic curves are approximately parallel to those in pure water test, but the performance deteriorates sharply until an abrupt flow-cutting at a critical volume fraction of gas. This pump is found suitable for transporting gas-liquid two-phase mixture when working around rated capacity of 5 m^3·h^-1 with qglQm below 15%.

Flow Regime Identification of Gas-liquid Two-phase Flow Based on HHT

A new method to identify flow regime in two-phase flow was presented, based on signal processing of differential pressure using Hilbert Huang transform （HHT）. Signals obtained from a Venturi meter were decomposed into different intrinsic mode functions （IMFs） with HHT, then the energy fraction of each intrinsic mode and the mean value of residual function were calculated, from which the rules of flow regime identification were summarized. Experiments were carried out on two-phase flow in the horizontal tubes with 50mm and 40mm inner diameter, while water flowrate was in the range of 1.3m^3.h^-1 to 10.5m^3.h^-1, oil flowrate was from 4.2m^3.h^-1 to 7.0m^3.h^-1 and gas flowrate from 0 to 15m^3.h^-1. The results show that the proposed rules have high precision for single phase, bubbly, and slug, plug flow regirne identification, which are independent of not only properties of two-phase fluid. In addition, the method can meet the need of industrial application because of its simple calculation.

A USM-Θ two-phase turbulence model for simulating dense gas-particle flows

A second-order moment two-phase turbulence model for simulating dense gas-particle flows （USM-Θ model）, combining the unified second-order moment twophase turbulence model for dilute gas-particle flows with the kinetic theory of particle collision, is proposed. The interaction between gas and particle turbulence is simulated using the transport equation of two-phase velocity correlation with a two-time-scale dissipation closure. The proposed model is applied to simulate dense gas-particle flows in a horizontal channel and a downer. Simulation results and their comparison with experimental results show that the model accounting for both anisotropic particle turbulence and particle-particle collision is obviously better than models accounting for only particle turbulence or only particle-particle collision. The USM-Θ model is also better than the k-ε-kp-Θ model and the k-ε-kp-εp-Θ model in that the first model can simulate the redistribution of anisotropic particle Reynolds stress components due to inter-particle collision, whereas the second and third models cannot.

Identification Method of Gas-Liquid Two-phase Flow Regime Based on Image Multi-feature Fusion and Support Vector Machine

The knowledge of flow regime is very important for quantifying the pressure drop, the stability and safety of two-phase flow systems. Based on image multi-feature fusion and support vector machine, a new method to identify flow regime in two-phase flow was presented. Firstly, gas-liquid two-phase flow images including bub- bly flow, plug flow, slug flow, stratified flow, wavy flow, annular flow and mist flow were captured by digital high speed video systems in the horizontal tube. The image moment invariants and gray level co-occurrence matrix texture features were extracted using image processing techniques. To improve the performance of a multiple classifier system, the rough sets theory was used for reducing the inessential factors. Furthermore, the support vector machine was trained by using these eigenvectors to reduce the dimension as flow regime samples, and the flow regime intelligent identification was realized. The test results showed that image features which were reduced with the rough sets theory could excellently reflect the difference between seven typical flow regimes, and successful training the support vector machine could quickly and accurately identify seven typical flow regimes of gas-liquid two-phase flow in the horizontal tube. Image multi-feature fusion method provided a new way to identify the gas-liquid two-phase flow, and achieved higher identification ability than that of single characteristic. The overall identification accuracy was 100%, and an estimate of the image processing time was 8 ms for online flow regime identification.

Local Flow Regime Transition Criteria of Gas-Liquid Two-phase Flow in Vertical Upward Tube with a Horizontal Rod

The upward multiphase cross flow and heat transfer in the vertical tube may occur in oil production and chemical facilities. In this study, the local flow patterns of an upward gas-water two phase cross flow in a vertical tube with a horizontal rod have been investigated with an optical probe and the digital high speed video system. The local flow patterns are defined as the bubble, slug, churn and annular flow patterns. Optical probe signals are ana- lyzed in terms of probability density function, and it is proved that the local flow patterns can be recognized by this method. The transition mechanisms between the different flow patterns have been analyzed and the corresponding transitional models are proposed. Finally, local flow pattern maps of the upward gas-water two-phase flow in the vertical tube with a horizontal rod are constructed.

Experimental Research on Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Spiral Flow in Horizontal Pipe

In view of the importance of gas-liquid two-phase spiral flow and the few research reports at home and abroad,the gas-liquid two-phase spiral flow patterns have been researched in a horizontal pipe with different parameters investigated by means of observation and a high-speed camera.Since the appearance of spiral flow makes the distribution of twophase flow more complicated,the flow patterns appearing in the experiments were divided into the Spiral Wavy Stratified Flow(SWS),the Spiral Bubble Flow(SB),the Spiral Slug Flow(SS),the Spiral Linear Flow(SL),the Spiral Axial Flow(SA),and the Spiral Dispersed Flow(SD) by the observations and with reference to the predecessors' research achievements.A flow pattern map has been drawn up.The influence of velocity,vane angle and vane area on flow pattern conversion boundary and pressure drop has been studied,with a solid foundation laid for the future research work.

Multi-scale Chaotic Analysis of the Characteristics of Gas-Liquid Two-phase Flow Patterns

Using the high-speed camera the time sequences of the classical flow patterns of horizontal gas-liquid pipe flow are recorded, from which the average gray-scale values of single-frame images are extracted. Thus obtained gray-scale time series is decomposed by the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method, the various scales of the signals are processed by Hurst exponent method, and then the dual-fractal characteristics are obtained. The scattered bubble and the bubble cluster theories are applied to the evolution analysis of two-phase flow patterns. At the same time the various signals are checked in the chaotic recursion chart by which the two typical characteristics (diagonal average length and Shannon entropy) are obtained. Resulting term of these properties, the dynamic characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow patterns are quantitatively analyzed. The results show that the evolution paths of gas-liquid two-phase flow patterns can be well characterized by the integrated analysis on the basis of the gray-scale time series of flowing images from EMD, Hurst exponents and Recurrence Plot (RP). In the middle frequency section (2nd, 3rd, 4th scales), three flow patterns decomposed by the EMD exhibit dual fractal characteristics which represent the dynamic features of bubble cluster, single bubble, slug bubble and scattered bubble. According to the change of diagonal average lengths and recursive Shannon entropy characteristic value, the structure deterministic of the slug flow is better than the other two patterns. After the decomposition by EMD the slug flow and the mist flow in the high frequency section have obvious peaks. Anyway, it is an effective way to understand and characterize the dynamic characteristics of two-phase flow patterns using the multi-scale non-linear analysis method based on image gray-scale fluctuation signals.

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Analysis of the Influence of Asymmetric Pressure Conditions on the Splitting of a Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow at a T-Junction

Dedicated experiments and numerical simulations have been conducted to investigate the splitting characteristics of a gas-liquid two phase flow at a T junction.The experiments were carried out for different gas-liquid velocities.The flow rates in the two branches were measured accurately to determine how the two considered phases distribute in the two outlets.The experimental results have shown that when the two outlet pressures are asymmetric,the two-phase flow always tends to flow into the outlet which has a lower pressure.As the inlet liquid velocity increases,however,the two-phase flow gradually tends to split evenly.Compared with the experiment results,the pressure difference between the two outlets can be determined more accurately by means of numerical simulation.The trends of experimental results and simulations are in very good agreement.

A Hydrodynamic Modei for Slug Frequency in Horizontal Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow

The prediction of slug frequency has important significance on gas-liquid two-phase flow. A hydrody-namic modei was put forward to evaluate slug frequency for horizontal two-phase flow, based on the dependence of slug frequency on the frequency of unstable interfacial wave. Using air and water, experimental verification of the modei was carried out in a large range of flow parameters. Six electrical probes were installed at different positions of a horizontal plexiglass pipe to detect slug frequency development. The pipe is 30m long and its inner diameter is 24 mm. It is observed experimentally that the interfacial wave frequency at the inlet is about l to 3 times the frequency of stable slug. The slug frequencies predicted by the modei fit well with Tronconi (1990) modei and the experimental data. The combination of the hydrodynamic modei and the experimental data results in a conclusion that the frequency of equilibrium liquid slug is approximately half the miniraum frequency of interfacial wave.

Comparison of a Full Second-Order Moment Model and an Algebraic Stress Two-Phase Turbulence Model for Simulating Bubble-Liquid Flows in a Bubble Column

A full second-order moment (FSM) model and an algebraic stress (ASM) two-phase turbulence modelare proposed and applied to predict turbulent bubble-liquid flows in a 2D rectangular bubble column. Predictiongives the bubble and liquid velocities, bubble volume fraction, bubble and liquid Reynolds stresses and bubble-liquidvelocity correlation. For predicted two-phase velocities and bubble volume fraction there is only slight differencebetween these two models, and the simulation results using both two models are in good agreement with the particleimage velocimetry (PIV) measurements. Although the predicted two-phase Reynolds stresses using the FSM are insomewhat better agreement with the PIV measurements than those predicted using the ASM, the Reynolds stressespredicted using both two models are in general agreement with the experiments. Therefore, it is suggested to usethe ASM two-phase turbulence model in engineering application for saving the computation time.

Numerical simulation of the effect of void fraction and inlet velocity on two-phase turbulence in bubble-liquid flows

There are contradicted opinions on whether bubbles enhance or reduce the liquid turbulence. In this paper, the effect of void fraction and inlet velocity on the bubble-liquid two-phase turbulence of the multiple bubble-liquid jets in a two-dimensional channel is studied by using the two-phase second-order moment turbulence model. The results confirm the phenomena observed in experiments and reported in references that at a low void fraction and low inlet velocities the bubbles enhance the liquid turbulence, whereas at a high void fraction and high inlet velocities the bubbles reduce the liquid turbulence.

Reconstructing bubble profiles from gas-liquid two-phase flow data using agglomerative hierarchical clustering method

The knowledge of bubble profiles in gas-liquid two-phase flows is crucial for analyzing the kinetic processes such as heat and mass transfer, and this knowledge is contained in field data obtained by surface-resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. To obtain this information, an efficient bubble profile reconstruction method based on an improved agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) algorithm is proposed in this paper. The reconstruction method is featured by the implementations of a binary space division preprocessing, which aims to reduce the computational complexity, an adaptive linkage criterion, which guarantees the applicability of the AHC algorithm when dealing with datasets involving either non-uniform or distorted grids, and a stepwise execution strategy, which enables the separation of attached bubbles. To illustrate and verify this method, it was applied to dealing with 3 datasets, 2 of them with pre-specified spherical bubbles and the other obtained by a surface-resolved CFD simulation. Application results indicate that the proposed method is effective even when the data include some non-uniform and distortion.

An Experimental Study on the Void Fraction for Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flows in a Horizontal Pipe

The flow patterns and the void fraction related to a gas-liquid two-phase flow in a small channel are experimentally studied.The test channel is a transparent quartz glass circular channel with an inner diameter of 6.68 mm.The working fluids are air and water and their superficial velocities range from 0.014 to 8.127 m/s and from 0.0238 to 0.556 m/s,respectively.The void fraction is determined using the flow pattern images captured by a high-speed camera,while quick closing valves are used for verification.Four flow patterns are analyzed in experiments:slug flow,bubbly flow,annular flow and stratified flow.For intermittent flows(bubbly flow and slug flow),the cross-sectional void fraction is in a borderline condition while its probability distribution function(PDF)image displays a bimodal structure.For continuous flows(annular flow and stratified flow)the cross-sectional void fraction behaves as a fluctuating continuous curve while the(PDF)image displays a single peak structure.The volumetric void fraction data are also compared with available predictive formulas,and the results show that the agreement is very good.An effort is also provided to improve the so-called Gregory and Scott model using the available data.

Local Flow Regime Transition Criteria of Gas-Liquid Two-phase Flow in Vertical Upward Tube with a Horizontal Rod

The upward multiphase cross flow and heat transfer in the vertical tube may occur in oil production and chemical facilities. In this study, the local flow patterns of an upward gas-water two phase cross flow in a vertical tube with a horizontal rod have been investigated with an optical probe and the digital high speed video system. The local flow patterns are defined as the bubble, slug, churn and annular flow patterns. Optical probe signals are ana- lyzed in terms of probability density function, and it is proved that the local flow patterns can be recognized by this method. The transition mechanisms between the different flow patterns have been analyzed and the corresponding transitional models are proposed. Finally, local flow pattern maps of the upward gas-water two-phase flow in the vertical tube with a horizontal rod are constructed.

Branch Quality Control of Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow Using a Novel T-Junction Type Distributor

In order to eliminate mal-distribution and ensure the side arm to produce desirable gas quality a special distributor is proposed. The experimental distributor mainly consists of a straight through section,a gas extraction line,a liquid extraction line and a side arm branch. A gas orifice and a liquid orifice are mounted at the gas and liquid extraction line respectively to control the outlet gas quality. The diameter of the liquid orifice was set to 2. 50 mm and three gas orifices with different size( dG= 2. 65,5. 00,10. 00 mm) were tested. The experiments were carried out at an air-water two-phase flow loop. The gas superficial velocity ranged from 6. 0 to 20. 0 m /s and the liquid superficial velocity was in the range of 0. 02- 0. 18 m /s. Flow patterns such as wave flow,slug flow and annular flow were observed. The gas quality of the side arm branch was found mainly determined by the flow area ratio of the gas orifice to the liquid orifice and independent of gas and liquid superficial velocity,flow patterns and extraction flux.