University of Misan

College of Engineering

Department of Petroleum

Beggs and Brill Correlation

#REPORT

Prepared by :-
Ali Al Akbar Monther Salman

Supervised by :-
Mohammed A.Abdulnabi

Date :-
9 / 12 / 2022
Beggs and Brill Correlation (Beggs and Brill 1973)

Beggs and Brill developed correlations for liquid holdup and friction
factor. The correlations are based on experimental data from 90 ft
long acrylic pipes. Fluids used were air and water and 584 tests
were conducted. Gas rate, liquid rate and average system
pressure was varied. Pipes of 1 and 1.5 inch diameter were used.
First the pipe was horizontal, and the flow rates were varied in
such a way that all horizontal flow patterns were observed, see
figure 1. Afterwards the pipe inclination was changed, and liquid
holdup ( H L(θ)) and pressure drop was measured. By this the
effect of inclination on holdup and pressure drop could be studied.
Beggs and Brill proposed the following pressure-gradient equation,

where Ek ,dimensionless kinetic-energy pressure gradient, is

defined by

and mixture density should be calculated as

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Liquid holdup and friction factor should be found as described in
the following.

Figure 1: Horizontal flow patterns (Beggs and Brill 1973)

Beggs and Brill plotted liquid holdup versus angle of pipe from
horizontal, see figure 2. They found that holdup has a definite
dependency on angle. From the figure one can see that the curves
have maximum and minimum at +/- 50° from the horizontal. The
slippage and liquid holdup increase as the angle of the pipe
increase, from horizontal towards vertical (flow upwards). Gravity
forces act on the liquid, causing a decrease in the liquid velocity
and thereby slippage and holdup is increased. By further

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increasing of the angle, liquid covers the entire cross section of the
pipe. The slippage between the phases is reduced and liquid
holdup reduces. Beggs and Brill observed that degree of holdup
with angle varied with flow rates. To include effects of pipe
inclination, it was decided to normalize liquid holdup. The following
equation was proposed,

where Ψ is inclination correction factor, H L(θ) is holdup at angle θ

from horizontal, and H L(0) is horizontal holdup.

Figure 2: Liquid holdup versus angle (Beggs and Brill 1973)

The liquid holdup for horizontal flow should be calculated first, and
corrected for inclination afterwards. The equations used for
calculating liquid holdup is the same for all flow patterns, but there

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are different empirical coefficients for each flow pattern. The
equation for calculating liquid holdup for horizontal flow is:

where a, b, c are empirical coefficients given in table 1 and NFr is

mixture Froude number

Table 1: Empirical coefficients for calculating liquid holdup

Liquid holdup for horizontal flow should be grater or equal to the

no-slip liquid volume fraction. The inclination correction factor is
given by,

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where θ is actual angle of pipe from the horizontal, and C is liquid
holdup parameter. The liquid holdup parameter is defined as

with a restriction, C ≥ 0. e, f, g, h are empirical coefficients. They

vary with flow regime and flow direction and should be determined
from table 2. Only uphill flow direction is included here. For the
distributed flow pattern no correction is needed. C will be zero,
giving ψ equal to one. If the flow falls in the transition regime, an
interpolation should be carried out.

Table 2: Empirical coefficients for calculating liquid holdup parameter