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Liquid slug holdup in horizontal and slightly inclined two-phase slug

flow

Article  in  Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering · July 2000

DOI: 10.1016/S0920-4105(99)00056-X

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 Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 27 Ž2000. 27–32
www.elsevier.nlrlocaterjpetscieng

Liquid slug holdup in horizontal and slightly inclined two-phase

slug flow
Ghassan H. Abdul-Majeed
UniÕersity of Baghdad, P.O. Box 47101, Jadiriyah, Baghdad, Iraq

Received 11 January 1999; accepted 28 September 1999

Abstract

A new empirical equation for estimating liquid slug holdup in horizontal and slightly inclined two-phase flow is
developed as a function of mixture velocity, liquid viscosity and inclination angle. The proposed equation is based on
measured data consists of 316 data points for horizontal flow and 107 data points for inclined flow, with inclination angles
ranging from y108 to 98 from horizontal. Based on the present measured data and data from other sources, the new equation
is shown to be a significant improvement over the published models for both the horizontal and inclined slug flow. q 2000
Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: slug flow; liquid slug holdup; horizontal and inclined flow

1. Introduction of the individual values of gas and liquid velocities.

A summary of these models is given in Table 1.
The objectives of this study were to ascertain the
Slug flow is one of the most common flow pat-
accuracy of existing H LLS models for horizontal and
terns encountered in wellbores and pipelines. It oc-
inclined flows and to develop a new correlation if
curs over a wide range of liquid and gas flow rates.
necessary.
The liquid holdup in the liquid slugs in slug two-
phase flow Ž H LLS . is an important variable, which is
required as a closure relationship for slug model.
Andreuss and Bendiksen Ž1989., Tony et al. Ž1995.,
2. Measured data
and Abdul-Majeed, 1997 showed that this variable is
affected by gas and liquid flow rates, fluid properties
and inclination angle. The data consists of 435 slug liquid holdup points
Several models have been proposed for predicting taken from seven different sources. These data are
H LLS for horizontal slug flow. In the inclined flow carefully culled to eliminate unreasonable data and
area, only two models are available. All the pub- data that lie outside slug flow region. The observa-
lished models are based on the assumption that H LLS tions where VSG ) 10 mrs Žthree points. and those
is a unique function of mixture velocity, regardless where H LLS - 0.26 Žnine points. have been re-

0920-4105r00r$ - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 0 - 4 1 0 5 Ž 9 9 . 0 0 0 5 6 - X
28 G.H. Abdul-Majeedr Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 27 (2000) 27–32

Table 1
Summary of the existing models
Model Parameters included
VM D Fluid properties Inclination angle
Gregory et al. Ž1978. U x x x
Malnes Ž1982. U x U x
Ferchneider Ž1983. U U U x
Barnea and Brauner Ž1985. U U U x
Andreussi and Bendiksen Ž1989. U U U U
Felizola and Shoham Ž1995. U x x U

moved. Gregory et al. Ž1978. showed that the the standard deviation ŽSD.. Equations for these
slugrannular transition lies within the region 10 F measures are:
VSG F 15 mrs. In addition, Roumazeilles Ž1994. and Ž Estimatedy Measured.
Fuchs and Brandt Ž1989. showed that the minimum PE s = 100 Ž 1.
Measured
H LLS value for stable slug flow is 0.26. The revised n
data bank now contains 423 data points. Ý PE i
The sources of the measured data and the range of is1
APE s Ž 2.
some of the flow parameters are given in Tables 2 n
and 3, respectively. As shown, the data bank covers n

very wide range of flow conditions. Ý <PE i <

is1
AAPEs Ž 3.
n
n n 2
3. Results

To determine the relative accuracy of models,

three familiar statistical measures of reliability were
computed: Ž1. the average percent error ŽAPE.; Ž2.
SD s ) n Ý
is1
n2
2
Ž PE i . y Ý PE i
is1

The statistical results for horizontal and inclined

Ž 4.

the absolute average percent error ŽAAPE.; and Ž3. flow data are listed in Tables 4 and 5, respectively.

Table 2
Composition of the data bank
Data source Pipe diameter Fluids Angle degree Data points
Žcm.
1. Tulsa University Fluid Flow Projects ŽTUFFP.
Kouba Ž1986. 7.62 airrkerosene 0 53
Felizola and Shoham Ž1992. 5.10 airrkerosene 0 9
Roumazeilles Ž1994. 5.10 airrkerosene 0, y3, y5, y10 91
2. Kokal Ž1987. 5.10 airrlight oil 0, 1, 5, 9 59
7.62 airrlight oil 0, 1, 5, 9 32
3. Rothe et al. Ž1986. 17.145 Freonrwater 0 7
17.145 airrwater 0 7
4. Fuchs and Brandt Ž1989. 20.32 nitrogenrdiesel 0 8
5. Gregory et al. Ž1978. 2.58 airrlight oil 0 59
5.10 airrlight oil 0 98
 G.H. Abdul-Majeedr Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 27 (2000) 27–32 29

Table 3 Table 5
Range of data bank Statistical results of models for inclined flow Ž107 data points.
Parameter Minimum Maximum Model APE AAPE SD
Superficial gas velocity, mrs 0.061 10 Gregory et al. Ž1978. y25.95 26.99 22.11
Superficial liquid velocity, mrs 0.0305 2.316 Malnes Ž1982. y32.36 33.86 32.14
Liquid density, kgrm3 785 1000 Ferchneider Ž1983. 0.380 16.76 20.96
Gas density, kgrm3 1.6 30.44 Barnea and Brauner Ž1985. y22.07 29.89 29.95
Pipe diameter, cm 2.58 20.32 Andreussi and Bendiksen Ž1989. y20.77 23.48 20.59
Slug liquid holdup 0.26 1.0 Felizola and Shoham Ž1995. 45.27 46.75 70.19
Angle from horizontal, degree y10 q9
Surface tension, Nrm 0.027 0.072
Liquid viscosity, Pa.s 0.001 0.007
due to the use of very limited range of V M in the
development of this model.
The predictions for all data are presented in Table
Comparison of these results indicates that the models 6. As can be seen, all models give unsatisfactory
give better results for horizontal flow. results Žhigh values of AAPE., therefore, it is desir-
For horizontal flow ŽTable 4., the models of able to suggest an accurate model for estimating
Barnea–Brauner, Malnes, Ferchneider and An- H LLS in horizontal and inclined slug flows.
dreussi–Bendiksen produce approximately the same
results. The Felizola–Shoham model tends to signifi-
cantly overpredict the measured data. The Gregory et 4. New model
al. model is expected to perform best because of
inclusion of their data Ž157 points. which biases the Analyses of the measured data indicates that al-
statistical results in favor of this model. though wide ranges of pipe diameter and surface
The results of the models are worse for inclined tension are included, H LLS is affected very slightly
flow Ž f s "108. as shown in Table 5. This is not by these two variables. Careful examination of the
surprising for models that neglect the effect of the observations, however, indicates that a simple rela-
angle of inclination. The Andreussi–Bendiksen and tionship existed between H LLS and liquid viscosity,
Felizola–Shoham models account for the effect of as shown in Fig. 1. The trend of the data may be
pipe inclination on liquid holdup but they also failed represented by:
to predict liquid holdup satisfactorily. H LLS s Ž 1.009 y CVM . A Ž 5.
Detailed calculations reveal that the Andreussi–
Bendiksen model yields unsatisfied results for f G 58 where
because this model was empirically derived from the mG
C s 0.006 q 1.3377 . Ž 6.
data limited to f F 48. mL
The Felizola–Shoham model gives unrealistic
values for VM ) 5 mrs. This discrepancy is mainly Eq. Ž5. indicates that liquid holdup should in-
crease as liquid viscosity increases. Intuitively, in-

Table 4 Table 6
Statistical results of models for horizontal flow Ž316 data points. Statistical results of models for all flow data Ž423 data points.
Model APE AAPE SD Model APE AAPE SD
Gregory et al. Ž1978. I5.71 8.740 15.95 Gregory et al. Ž1978. y10.83 13.36 19.78
Malnes Ž1982. y6.12 11.19 20.73 Malnes Ž1982. y12.76 16.93 26.70
Ferchneider Ž1983. 0.79 11.21 20.95 Ferchneider Ž1983. 0.686 12.62 20.95
Barnea and Brauner Ž1985. y4.06 13.41 21.76 Barnea and Brauner Ž1985. y8.62 17.58 25.33
Andreussi and Bendiksen Ž1989. y2.03 10.89 18.59 Andreussi and Bendiksen Ž1989. y6.77 14.08 20.78
Felizola and Shoham Ž1995. 36.74 38.38 70.94 Felizola and Shoham Ž1995. 38.90 40.50 70.50
30 G.H. Abdul-Majeedr Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 27 (2000) 27–32

Table 7
Summary of statistical results for the proposed model
Data APE AAPE SD
Horizontal and upward 0.46 6.67 11.46
inclined flow data
Downward inclined y2.69 10.36 13.62
flow data
All data y0.34 7.60 12.12

new equation are smaller than those listed in Table

Fig. 1. Liquid slug holdup data for horizontal flow.
creased liquid viscosity should increase viscous stress
causing increased liquid holdup irrespective of the
angle of inclination.
The parameter A is included to account for the
effect of inclination angle. This effect is examined
by comparing the horizontal with inclined observa-
tions. The comparison shows that:
1. The liquid slug holdup is very weakly related to
downward inclination angle.
2. For upward flow, small deviations from horizon-
tal cause relatively significant increase in liquid
slug holdup.
4–6, demonstrating superior performance over all of
the models.
Fig. 2 shows the comparison between the pre-
dicted and measured holdup data. All of the pre-
dicted values agree within 10% with the measured
data.
To verify the application of the proposed model
for viscous liquids, Eq. Ž5. is compared with unpub-
lished horizontal flow data ŽTable 8., obtained using
air and a relatively heavy oil mixture flowing in a
5.1 cm diameter pipe. The viscosity of oil is 20 m Pa
s, which is much greater than the range covered by
the data bank.
Comparison of all models using these data is
given in Table 9. Based on the lowest values of the
statistical parameters, the new model performs best
followed by Gregory et al. model. Fig. 3 compares
the predictions with the measured values. Excellent
agreement is obtained between the measured data

The following equations are suggested for esti-

mating the parameter A:for horizontal and down-
ward flows Ž f F 0.:
A s 1.0, Ž 7.
for upward flow Ž f ) 0.:
A s 1.0 y Sin f . Ž 8.
Applications of Eqs. Ž7. and Ž8. show that they
predict very well the observed effect of inclination
for the present data bank, and also for the data of
Andreuss and Bendiksen Ž1989..
The predictions of the proposed equation are pre- Fig. 2. Comparison of measured and predicted liquid slug holdup
sented in Table 7. The statistical parameters for the data; proposed model.
 G.H. Abdul-Majeedr Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 27 (2000) 27–32 31

Table 8
Viscous horizontal data used for evaluation
Test no. VSG Žmrs. VSL Žmrs. H LLS
1 1.981 0.229 0.85
2 1.954 0.853 0.83
3 4.054 0.945 0.69
4 3.017 0.152 0.81
5 0.427 1.219 0.90
6 0.930 1.280 0.88
7 0.732 0.186 0.96
8 0.911 1.067 0.90
9 0.305 0.671 0.91
10 6.492 0.457 0.61
11 5.112 0.579 0.65
12 4.359 1.219 0.65
13 5.639 0.549 0.62
14 1.463 1.189 0.86
15 1.372 0.189 0.93 Fig. 3. Comparison of measured and predicted liquid slug holdup
16 1.844 0.335 0.89 data.
17 2.408 0.610 0.84
18 3.932 0.610 0.75
19 2.560 0.640 0.83
by Gregory et al. model. A larger spread of the
20 5.852 0.302 0.65 predicted values is observed for this model.
21 2.896 0.128 0.84
22 2.926 0.216 0.83
23 3.505 0.488 0.75 5. Conclusion
24 1.128 1.219 0.84
25 4.602 1.829 0.60
26 3.048 0.914 0.77
27 3.048 1.554 0.75
1. None of the existing models are capable of pre-
28 1.524 1.524 0.85 dicting liquid slug holdup in both horizontal and
29 2.286 0.853 0.83 inclined flow Ž f s "108..
30 1.259 0.823 0.90 2. A more accurate empirical correlation was devel-
31 2.073 0.945 0.80 oped and tested against the present data bank and
32 7.468 0.610 0.50
33 6.553 1.219 0.51
data from unpublished sources.
34 8.595 0.610 0.44
35 8.839 0.305 0.45

6. Notation
and the behavior of the proposed model. Also shown AAPE absolute average percent error, dimen-
on the figure are the liquid holdup values predicted sionless
APE average percent error, dimensionless
Table 9 D pipe diameter, m
Statistical results of models using viscous horizontal data H LLS slug liquid holdup, dimensionless
Model APE AAPE SD PE percent error, dimensionless
Gregory et al. Ž1978. y0.680 2.880 3.490 SD standard deviation, dimensionless
Malnes Ž1982. 0.110 5.820 8.220 VM mixture velocity, mrs
Barnea and Brauner Ž1985. y10.00 13.99 14.76 VSG superficial gas velocity, mrs
Ferchneider Ž1983. y10.07 11.91 14.56 VSL superficial liquid velocity, mrs
Andreussi and Bendiksen Ž1989. y4.650 5.89 4.970
Felizola and Shoham Ž1995. y37.59 37.59 48.62
mG gas viscosity, Pa s
This study 0.022 2.03 2.290 mL liquid viscosity, Pa s
f inclination from horizontal, degree
32 G.H. Abdul-Majeedr Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 27 (2000) 27–32
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Professor James P. Brill of Tulsa
University for providing me with the recent publica-
tions and the data bank.
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