Churn Flow Regime Research Articles

Numerical modelling of multiphase flow hydrodynamics by CFD analysis methods in a double-elbow pipeline

Introduction. Prediction of multiphase flow patterns in pipelines of gas and oil industry is a complicated hydrodynamic process. Hydraulics of gas-liquid flows and erosion processes in pipelines with many bends in which gas, water, oil and air move are insufficiently studied. There are known studies of movement in single-phase flow conditions with one elbow, which is insufficient for design of modern pipeline systems. Therefore, there is a need for in-depth analysis of interaction of media in multiphase flow and transported sand particles. In this paper the effects of elbows on multiphase flow hydraulics and erosion of pipe sections are investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling tools for 100 seconds’ of process.
 
 Materials and methods. A liquid volume model (VOF) was used to simulate three-phase flow: air-water with solids in a pipe with two elbows. Turbulence effects have been accounted for with the RNG k–ε model. The model verification methods from previous studies have been used. For the numerical solution, the Ansys Fluent version 20.1 software package has been used. The results of CFD modelling of the volumetric gas content have shown a good agreement with the available experimental data.
 
 Results. The results showed that the change in the flow regime remains unchanged before the first elbow and after the se-cond elbow in the cork flow. However, for the initial churn flow regime, the flow regime varies at different segments of the flow area before and after each elbow.
 
 Conclusions. The preliminary churn flow in the upper vertical section was transformed to wavy stratified flow in the horizontal section between the two elbows and wavy annular flow in the vertical pipe after the second elbow. The flow pattern in slug flow maintained same after the first elbow, but the Taylor bubbles are lengthier in the horizontal section between the first and second elbows.

Improved phase fraction measurement via non-intrusive optical sensing for vertical upward gas -liquid flow

This paper presents the design and application of a non-intrusive optical sensor for the accurate measurement of phase fractions under a vertical upward gas-liquid flow. The sensor was made of two pairs of emitter and photo receivers operated at a wavelength of 1480 nm. The measurement principle of the sensor is based on the disparity in refractive indexes of gas and liquid that provides a proportional relationship between the phase fraction and light intensity. A flow regime dependent calibration model was then developed which corrects for structural scattering derived from the calibrated sensor responses. The model was able to measure local and average phase fractions under varied flow regimes with errors of ± 1.25% and ± 2% relative to photography and swell level methods respectively with a combined uncertainty of ± 2.3%. Comparisons of the non-intrusive optical sensor with the homogenous, Drift flux and Armard phase fraction correlations showed reasonable agreements. The concept of slip as a dominant effect for flow regime in the slug, churn and annular flow regimes accounted for these disparities. The work demonstrates the efficacy of a low cost, non-intrusive method to determine phase fraction in two phase flow over a wide range of flow conditions.

Condensation heat transfer of binary and ternary mixtures inside multiport tubes

This study investigated the condensation heat transfer of pure refrigerants and binary and ternary mixtures inside horizontal multiport tubes with multiple square minichannels. The effects of mass flux, vapor quality, heat flux, channel size, and channel shape were evaluated using pure refrigerants R32 and R1234yf; binary mixtures R32/R1234yf, R32/R1123, R32/R13I1, and R410A; and ternary mixtures R1123/R32/R1234yf and CO2/R32/R1234yf. For pure refrigerants, the heat transfer coefficient in the annular and churn flow regimes decreased monotonically with decreasing vapor quality. By contrast, the heat transfer coefficient in the plug flow regime was higher over a wide vapor quality range because of the thin condensate film formed by surface tension. Smaller channels exhibited higher heat transfer coefficients. The square minichannels exhibited higher heat transfer coefficients than the circular minichannels, except in the region with high mass flux and high vapor quality. For binary and ternary mixtures, the heat transfer coefficients significantly decreased with decreasing mass flux and vapor quality and were strongly deteriorated at lower mass fluxes. Compared with the annular and churn flow regimes, in the plug and slug-annular flow regimes, where heat transfer through the thin liquid film was dominant, the effect of mass diffusion resistance in deteriorating heat transfer was the most pronounced. A new heat transfer model for pure refrigerants inside multiport tubes with multiple rectangular minichannels was developed considering the contributions of vapor shear stress and surface tension. The proposed model was verified using a dataset of pure refrigerants, and a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 11.5% was achieved. Furthermore, a new heat transfer model that considers the heat transfer deterioration of non-azeotropic refrigerant mixtures was proposed, which could predict 508 datapoints with an MAPE of 13.3%.

Two-phase flow in a vertical concentric annulus: Pressure drop and flow configuration

This paper presents experimental investigation of flow configurations and pressure drop of single-phase water flow and two-phase air-water flow in a vertical annulus. The annular test section had a concentric geometry with a casing and tubing diameter of 50 and 33.7 mm, respectively. The superficial velocity conditions of the liquid and gas were ranged 0.08–1.56 and 0–3.56 m/s, respectively. The combination of these superficial velocities produces the bubbly, slug and churn flow regimes. The identification of the flow patterns shows that the Mishima and Ishii model is the most relevant to highlight the flow transition. The measured friction factors were compared to prediction models from the literature. It was deduced that the model proposed by Gunn and Darling underestimates the liquid friction factor in the annulus. The measured pressure drops and the dimensionless pressure gradient evolution exhibits different slopes that characterize each flow pattern. The standard deviation and structure frequency describe specific ranges for each flow pattern. These two parameters can also be used for the prediction of flow patterns.

Gas-liquid flow regime identification via a non-intrusive optical sensor combined with polynomial regression and linear discriminant analysis

The identification of gas-liquid flow regimes for co-current upward flow in a vertical pipe is investigated using Polynomial regression (PR) and Linear Discriminant analysis (LDA) on the response from a non-intrusive optical sensor. The average voltage and associated standard deviation can be extracted as features from the sensor and used as inputs to establish the coefficients of an optimal regression model. Further to this, due to the structural similarity between the slug and churn flow regimes, further discrimination was required in the form of a Linear discriminant analysis to give accurate classification between these two flow regimes. According to the offline test and real-time flow conditions considered, a classification accuracy of 100% is achieved. The results of this paper show the capability of applying a relatively simple supervised regression model and LDA to the response from a non-intrusive optical sensor to identify gas-liquid flow regimes efficiently and accurately.

Experimental study of two-phase flow patterns through an inclined rectangular channel with horizontal and vertically upward directions

In this paper, an experiment is carried out to recognize the flow pattern and to measure the void fraction of gas–liquid two-phase flow in an upward inclined channel (horizontally to vertically upward). The experiments are performed in a 30-m channel with dimensions of 100 × 150-mm utilizing air and water as a fluid mixture. Three flow patterns, including slug, churn, or annular-mist flow are observed in the vertical section. It was determined that upstream impacts influence the interactions as well as momentum transfer among the two phases. Also, the amount of backward flow consequence of the formation of counter-current flow across the vertical section is specified by downstream impacts. The outstanding regime of flow in the vertical section was from the churn flow regime. The flow regime through the first horizontal section is classified into two parts: the fully developed part and the inlet bend section which is affected by disturbance pursued by the mixer and vertical section.

Vibrations of a vertical 90° pipe bend under two-phase flow conditions

PurposeA simulation framework that includes a finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is generated to study the effect of unstable two-phase flow-induced vibrations at a vertical 90° pipe bend. The corresponding fluid-structure interaction (FSI) of an unstable flow may pose danger to the piping structure. This paper intends to discuss this interaction.Design/methodology/approachFour cases of flows under the slug flow and churn flow regimes were investigated. The flow regimes vary in superficial gas velocities with velocities from 0.978 m/s to 9.04 m/s, while the superficial liquid velocity is kept constant at 0.61 m/s. The pipe model consists of an internal diameter of 0.0525 m, a bend radius of 0.0762 m, and a stainless-steel pipe structure.FindingsResults show that the average unstable void fractions increase with the superficial gas velocities, but the peak frequencies were constant at 13 Hz for three of the cases. The total displacement and von Mises stress increase with a declining rate in each subsequent case, while the RMS of von Mises stress begins to stall at superficial gas velocities between 5 m/s and 9.04 m/s. The peak frequencies of von Mises stress decrease in each subsequent case.Originality/valueThe proposed model can be used to investigate the FSI effect of unstable void fractions at pipe bends and could assist in the development of piping systems in which the use of piping elements arranged close together are unavoidable.

Small bubbles formation and contribution to the overall gas holdup in large diameter columns of very high viscosity oil

A limited number of studies are available in literature on the small bubbles which create from gas-very high viscosity oils interaction and its contribution to the gas holdup in the system. The rate of small bubble formation has an important impact on heat and mass transfer in many chemical and industrial processes. The work presented in the current paper provides unique information on the formation of bubbles of millimetre diameter in high viscosity oil. A column of 290 mm diameter and Silicon oil of 330 Pa.s viscosity, were employed besides Electrical Capacitance Tomography and a high-resolution camera to investigate the characteristics of the small bubbles. Mechanism of bubble generation, effect of gas injection time and flowrate were studied. The average void fraction, total gas-liquid height, overall Probability Density Function (PDF) profile, small bubbles volume fractions and diameter were measured. Small bubbles generate from the eruption of large bubbles, at gas injection nozzles, coalescence of large bubbles, and at liquid bridges at transition to churn flow regime. Properties and concentration of the small bubbles are controlled by the location of the bubble generation, gas flowrate, and gas injection time. Small bubbles contribute by 6.6- 30% to the total gas holdup. Bubble diameter increased from 0.68 mm to 0.75 mm and decreased from 1.1 mm to 0.75 mm at the top and the bottom sections of the column respectively after 60 minof gas injection.

Particle Transport Velocity in Vertical Transmission with an Airlift Pump

This paper presents the optimal conditions for fast transfer of solid particle with an airlift pump. The experimental examinations were carried out in an airlift pump with a length of 5.64 m and an inner diameter of 0.102 m in order to determine the impact of submergence ratio, air flow, and physical particle properties, such as shape, size, and density, on the vertical velocity of the particle in detail. The results showed that with the same air flow, the maximum particle velocity was achieved when the churn flow regime is established with a submergence ratio close to 0.89. However, in bubble and slug flow, it is not possible to carry a large particle in the dimensions of centimeters. Furthermore, in a churn flow, the velocity of the particle exceeds the velocity of pumped water; hence, water is not the only particle carrier in a vertical three-phase flow.

МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ ВЛИЯНИЯ ПОЛОЖЕНИЯ ТРУБОПРОВОДА НА РЕЖИМ МНОГОФАЗНОГО ПОТОКА

The paper investigates the effect of an inclination angle of a straight pipeline on the gas-liquid two-phase flow regime at the same inlet conditions. The homogeneous Volume of Fluid (VOF) model in Ansys Fluent is used in this study for simulating the spread of the gas phase, changes in the entrance region and establishing of the multiphase flow regime. The authors consider a horizontal, vertical and inclined (60 degrees) pipelines where the stratified, bubbly and churn flow regimes are formed respectively, and the results are presented in terms of the gas phase distribution in the volume of the carrying liquid and the velocity field.

Experimental Examination of Gas-liquid Two-phase Flow Patterns in an Inclined Rectangular Channel with 90° Bend for Various Vertical Lengths

In order to realize the behavior of two-phase flow in an inclined rectangular channel with 90̊ bend for various vertical lengths, an experimental investigation has performed. The test section (a chanel with 30 m length) contains two horizontal parts and a middle vertical section. Three vertical lengths of 50, 100 and 150 cm were utilized along the test section. The cross section of the rectangular channel is 10 cm × 15 cm. Air and water were the fluids used in this work. Various flow patterns are created by varying the volumetric flow-rates of gas and liquid; the air and water flow rates were in the range of 2 to 10 and 34 to 235 , respectively. The high speed video system was utilized to achieve image subsequence of the flow under various conditions. The effects of vertical length on flow regimes and pattern transition borders are examined. According to the flow visualization, no vortex was observed in the vertical section. The significant flow regime in the vertical section is churn flow regime. It is concluded that the flow pattern structures are not greatly affected by changing the vertical length.

Thermo-fluidic characteristics and performance in a distribute heating bubble pump generator

In some thermally driven two-phase natural circulation systems, bubble pumps serve as the key driving powers for the cycles. Recently a type of distribute heating bubble pump generator (BPG) is gradually receiving attention due to its compact structure and great potentials to utilize solar energy and low-grade waste heat recovery. The BPG provides a variety of promising features (e.g., passive heat transfer, enhanced reliability), which can benefit the advancing of heat transfer technology. For the primary study, we performed an experiment in a distributed heating BPG. Through utilizing multiple lift tubes and partial visualization configurations, it provides accesses to observe the flow pattern transition and monitor the flow instability, and thus to explore some of the underlying mechanisms affecting BPG performance.Results showed that heat input and immersion height were crucial parameters to enable the operation of distribute heating BPG. With low heat input or high inlet water subcooling level, the flow within the pump was unstable with intermittent flow interruptions. As the heat input increased, the fluid flow became more stable, the vapor generation increased linearly, while the lifted liquid flow rate initially increased then decreased. Correspondingly, the flow pattern at the outlet section of lift tubes gradually changed from slug flow to churn flow, and then to annular flow. The higher of the immersion was, the higher heat input was needed for the flow pattern transition. It was in the churn flow regime at the outlet of lift tubes for the BPG to lift a maximum liquid. At lower immersion level, liquid reflux in the lift tubes was obvious and affected the flow stability as well as the lifting performance. At higher immersion level, the fluid flow was more stable and faster, which lifted more liquid while generated less vapor depending on the inlet subcooling. In general, the BPG showed better performance (both the lifted liquid and vapor generation increased) at smaller inlet subcooling level or lower system pressure. This study highlights the flow pattern evolution and flow stability, which is helpful to the reliable design and effective operation of the distributed heating BPG.

Computational fluid dynamics modelling of multiphase flows in double elbow geometries

This study investigates the effects of elbow on the transition and development of multiphase flow using computational fluid dynamics modelling techniques. The Eulerian - Multifluid VOF model coupled with an Interfacial Area Transport Equation has been employed to simulate air-water two-phase flow in a pipe with two standard 90 degree elbows mounted in series. Turbulence effects were accounted for by the RNG k-ε model. The effects of separation distance on two-phase flow development have been studied for initial slug and churn flow regimes. Computational fluid dynamics simulation results of phase distribution and time series of void fraction fluctuations were obtained and they showed good agreement with available experimental data. The results show that for initial slug flow regime, there is no flow regime transformation upstream and downstream of the two elbows. While at initial churn flow regime, flow regime transformation occurs at different sections of the flow domain before and after the two elbows. It was noticed that irrespective of the flow regime, the amplitudes and frequencies of void fraction fluctuation become smaller as the fluid flows along the pipe. Changes in the separation distance between the two elbows have larger effects on the flow at churn flow regime.

Flow Pattern Map of Flow Boiling in a Rectangular Channel Filled with Porous Media

A flow visualization study was carried out for flow boiling in a rectangular channel filled with and without metallic random porous media. Four main flow patterns are observed as intermittent slug-churn flow, churn-annular flow, annular-mist flow, and mist flow regimes. These flow patterns are clearly classified based on the high-speed images of the channel flow. The results of the flow pattern map according to the mass flow rate were presented using saturation temperatures and the materials of porous media as variables. As the saturation temperatures increased, the annular-mist flow regime occupied a larger area than the lower saturation temperatures condition. Therefore, the churn flow regime is narrower, and the slug flow more quickly turns to annular flow with the increasing vapor quality. The pattern map is not significantly affected by the materials of porous media.

Characterization of R134a two-phase flow regimes in horizontal and vertical smooth tubes with capacitive sensors

This paper presents the identification of slug/stratified-wavy, stratified-wavy and annular regimes for horizontal flow (in the range of mass fluxes 40 – 150 kg m−2 s−1), and slug, churn, and annular flow regimes for vertical upward flow (in the range 65 – 115 kg m−2 s−1) for R134a flow through 7 mm ID tube. Flow regimes are characterized based on time plot of normalized capacitive signals, kernel density estimation (KDE), power spectral density (PSD), and visualization results from a high-speed camera. Sensors with different axial lengths (D, 2D/3, and D/2) are also tested to study the adequacy of shorter sensors for the characterization of flow regimes. Results show that all three sensors have a similar capability of characterizing flow regimes, justifying the use of the shorter sensors in many applications with limited space.

Flow Regime Identification in Vertical Upward Gas–Liquid Flow Using an Optical Sensor With Linear and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis

Abstract The accurate identification of gas–liquid flow regimes in pipes remains a challenge for the chemical process industries. This paper proposes a method for flow regime identification that combines responses from a nonintrusive optical sensor with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) for vertical upward gas–liquid flow of air and water. A total of 165 flow conditions make up the dataset, collected from an experimental air–water flow loop with a transparent test section (TS) of 27.3 mm inner diameter and 5 m length. Selected features extracted from the sensor response are categorized into feature group 1, average sensor response and standard deviation, and feature group 2 that also includes percentage counts of the calibrated responses for water and air. The selected features are used to train, cross validate, and test four model cases (LDA1, LDA2, QDA1, and QDA2). The LDA models produce higher average test classification accuracies (both 95%) than the QDA models (80% QDA1 and 45% QDA2) due to misclassification associated with the slug and churn flow regimes. Results suggest that the LDA1 model case is the most stable with the lowest average performance loss and is therefore considered superior for flow regime identification. In future studies, a larger dataset may improve stability and accuracy of the QDA models, and an extension of the conditions and parameters would be a useful test of applicability.

Single- and two-phase pressure drop through vertical Venturis

An experimental investigation of the pressure drops measurements in a Venturi placed in a vertical pipe is achieved. Venturis with diameter ratios equal to 0.4, 0.55, and 0.75 were employed. Differential pressure transducers were used to measure the pressure drop between the Venturi inlet and the throat sections. The void fraction was measured upstream the Venturi using a conductance probe technique. Air and water superficial velocities ranges were chosen to cover single-phase flow and bubbly, slug, and churn flow regimes. The single-phase pressure drop increases with the liquid superficial velocity. The Venturi pressure drop coefficient increases with decreasing the Venturi area ratio. The discharge coefficient increases slightly with this ratio and approaches a value of unity at high Reynolds number. The two-phase flow pressure drop and the multiplier coefficient increase with the gas superficial velocity and with decreasing the area ratio. Dimensionless pressure drop decreases with increasing the liquid to gas superficial velocity ratio and approaches an asymptotic value at high ratio (greater than 10). This value matches the single-phase flow dimensionless pressure drop value at high Reynolds number. The Venturi with area ratio equal to 0.55 was shown to correlate well the two-phase multiplier and the liquid holdup.

Experimental studies of heat transfer and flow regimes during flow boiling of water and alumina nanofluids at different heat and mass fluxes

The flow boiling heat transfer in a vertical pipe of inner diameter 7.5 mm was investigated with pure water and Al2O3/water nanofluid as working fluids. The main heater section was made up of borosilicate glass for better visualization of flow regime. For this study, particle concentrations of 0.001%, 0.005% and 0.01% were considered. The influence of mass flux and heat flux, on flow boiling heat transfer was analysed. From the results, it is observed that boiling heat transfer coefficient is increasing with mass flux for both water and nanofluids. Use of nanofluid decreases wall superheat. The average reduction of wall superheat, as compared to water, at mass flux of 905.42 kg/s-m2 for 0.001%, 0.005% and 0.01% nanofluids is 10.8%, 21.34% and 26.79% respectively. It is also observed that heat transfer coefficient increases with particle concentration due to the changed heater surface characteristics and amendment in bubble formation mechanism. The average enhancement in heat transfer coefficient, as compared to water, for the particle concentrations of 0.001%, 0.005% and 0.01% at a mass flux of 905.42 kg/s-m2 is found to be 12.11%, 21.75% and 27.97%, respectively. Flow visualization study was also done to differentiate flow patterns of water and nanofluids. Churn flow regime was observed for water at moderate heat fluxes. However, in case of nanofluids, churn flow was not observed. The flow boiling heat transfer coefficient is observed to be high for the nanofluids compared to water. An effort has been made to explain the heat transfer mechanism, based on the existing flow boiling regime under the given conditions.

Three-dimensional simulations of liquid waves in isothermal vertical churn flow with OpenFOAM

Periodic liquid waves of large amplitude are one of characteristic phenomena observed in the churn flow regime of gas–liquid flow in vertical conduits, where the liquid flowing on the wall is entrained upwards by the gas flow in the core. The present work investigates the frequency of these large liquid waves. Three-dimensional simulations of isothermal churn flow of air and water in 19 and 32 mm vertical pipes were performed using the interFoam solver from the OpenFOAM library. Turbulent features in the flow are modelled using the unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes approach with the k–ω SST (shear stress transport) model. Interface sharpening with bounded compression was used to preserve the sharpness of gas–liquid interface by compensating the diffusive fluxes of the numerical scheme. A sensitivity study on the global amount of interface compression was performed for two flow cases taken from the literature. Mesh sensitivity study was performed using four meshes, ranging from a coarse mesh with several hundred thousand cells, to a fine mesh with several million computational cells. Results for the calculated wave frequency and wave maximum amplitude agree with measured values reported in the literature.

CFD modeling of liquid film reversal of two-phase flow in vertical pipes

The phenomenon of two-phase flows is characterized by its wide range of presence in nature and industrial applications. In gas and oil production, the simultaneous two-phase flow of gases and liquids often occurs in gas wells. The produced gases flow rate decreases over the years until reaching a critical flow rate when they lose their ability to lift the associated liquids upward and the liquid film reverses direction, which triggers liquid loading. Liquid loading causes the produced liquids to accumulate in the bottom of the wellbore, which causes a high back pressure that reduces the well production rate till production is ceased eventually. The critical gas velocity exists in the churn flow regime which is mainly characterized by the oscillatory behavior of the liquids flow field. This study employs CFD techniques to model the churn flow in a 3-inch-diameter vertical pipe near the critical gas flow rate for different liquid flow rates. This work utilizes the two-fluid Eulerian model along with the RNG (Re-Normalization Group) k-ε turbulence model to investigate the behavior of the flow field in a two-dimensional axisymmetric computational domain. Simulations were carried out using the commercial software ANSYS Fluent 18.2 with air and water as the two working fluids. The model results showed a good agreement with the experimental data and proved the mesh and time independence of the model. Oscillatory behaviors of the liquid film flow rate, shear stress, and pressure were observed along with the formation of interfacial waves. Detailed information about the velocity, shear stress, and pressure behaviors is presented. Accordingly, recommendations are suggested for future considerations.