An Efficient Drift-Flux Closure Relationship to Estimate Liquid Holdups of Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow in Pipes

Energies

Jinho Choi³  Eduardo Pereyra¹  Cem Sarica¹  Changhyup Park² 

[1] McDougall School of Petroleum Engineering, The University of Tulsa, 800 South Tucker Drive, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA; E-Mails:;Department of Energy & Resources Engineering, Kangwon National University, 1 Kangwondaehak-gil, Chuncheon, Kangwon 200-701, South Korea;Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, South Korea; E-Mails:

关键词: drift-flux model;    two-phase flow;    pipe flow;    liquid holdup;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en5125294

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The reliable predictions of liquid holdup and pressure drop are essential for pipeline design in oil and gas industry. In this study, the drift-flux approach is utilized to calculate liquid holdups. This approach has been widely used in formulation of the basic equations for multiphase flow in pipelines. Most of the drift-flux models have been developed on an empirical basis from the experimental data. Even though, previous studies showed that these models can be applied to different flow pattern and pipe inclination, when the distribution parameter is flow pattern dependent. They are limited to a set of fluid properties, pipe geometries and operational conditions. The objective of this study is to develop a new drift-flux closure relationship for prediction of liquid holdups in pipes that can be easily applied to a wide range of flow conditions. The developed correlation is compared with nine available correlations from literatures, and validated using the TUFFP (Fluid Flow Projects of University of Tulsa) experimental datasets and OLGA (OiL and GAs simulator supplied by SPTgroup) steady-state synthetic data generated by OLGA Multiphase Toolkit. The developed correlation performs better in predicting liquid holdups than the available correlations for a wide range of flow conditions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.