Effects of riser height and pipeline length on the transition boundary and frequency of severe slugging in offshore pipelines

Abstract

Investigating the transition boundary and frequency characteristics of severe slugging under different riser heights and pipeline lengths provides important support for the expansion of offshore oil and gas to deeper waters. The visualization research on air-water two-phase flow is carried out in a system with a horizontal pipeline length of 1687 m and riser heights of 16 m, 22 m, and 29 m, and flow pattern maps are plotted. Based on existing experimental data, the database of the flow pattern and slugging frequency in pipeline-riser systems with riser heights of 3–29 m, pipeline lengths of 10–1687 m, and pipe diameters of 25.4–50.8 mm is established. The long pipeline makes the gas pressure growth rate slower than that of the liquid pressure in the riser, which causes severe slugging occurring at higher superficial gas velocity. On the contrary, increasing the riser height causes the boundary of severe slugging to shift to a lower superficial gas velocity. The severe slugging length is greater in the higher riser and longer pipeline system, causing a smaller severe slugging frequency. A correlation for predicting severe slugging frequency at various riser heights, pipe lengths, and pipe diameters is established by employing gas and liquid Froude numbers.