Horizontal Gas-liquid Research Articles

An investigation on hydrodynamic behavior of horizontal gas–liquid intermittent flow by S-PLIF and parallel-wire conductance sensors

Horizontal gas–liquid two-phase flows widely exist in a variety of industrial fields such as the environment, chemical industry and energy. Intermittent flow, characterized by the quasi-periodic alternation motion of liquid slugs and large-scale Taylor bubbles, is the most prevalent flow pattern in horizontal gas–liquid two-phase flows. Comprehensive research on the hydrodynamic behavior of gas–liquid intermittent flow is essential for revealing the mass and heat transfer characteristics between phases, thereby establishing physical models of flow parameters. In this study, a structured planar laser-induced fluorescence (S-PLIF) system and paired parallel-wire conductance sensors (PWCSs) are designed to detect the gas–liquid interface structures and the hydrodynamic parameters. The S-PLIF system consists of a laser, a visualization box, a Ronchi ruling-plate and a pair of high-speed cameras. An optical linear prism forms a laser sheet in the transverse direction and the middle of the test section, and the cameras are positioned at 70° and 90° respectively to the plane of the laser sheet, referred to as S-PLIF70 and S-PLIF90. Under the laser excitation, bright and dark stripes generated by the Ronchi ruling-plate are deflected at the gas–liquid interface. The influence of total reflection can be effectively avoided by identifying the deflection position of the stripes, allowing for accurate detection of the gas–liquid interfacial structures. The effects of the interface fluctuations and detached bubbles on the S-PLIF70&90 results are investigated. Fluctuation and evolution characteristics of the gas–liquid interface are analyzed by probability density function (PDF) and power spectral density (PSD). Meanwhile, hydrodynamic parameters, i.e., Taylor bubble nose and tail velocity, Taylor bubble and slug length, and slug frequency, are detected by the PWCSs, and compared with previous correlations. The evolution characteristics of the interfacial structures and hydrodynamic parameters are uncovered as the flow condition changes.

Numerical and experimental investigation on droplet entrainment mechanism and closed equations of two-fluid model

As a clean and low-carbon energy source, natural gas is an important force in achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. Affected by the strong force of gas and liquid during mining and transportation, it exhibits the phenomenon of droplet entrainment. Entrained droplets change the properties of gas and liquid phases, which is crucial for accurate measurement of liquid film thickness, gas holdup, pressure drop and flow rates in natural gas pipelines. The measurement of entrained droplets has always been a focus and difficulty in the two-phase flow research field. Therefore, numerical simulation combined with experimental measurement are presented to study the droplet entrainment mechanism and closed equations of two-fluid model. The specific parameter settings for simulating horizontal gas–liquid annular flow based on numerical method are discussed, and effective simulation of droplet entrainment and deposition in annular flow is achieved. By comparing liquid film thickness and wave velocity from the simulation results with the experimental results, the correctness of the simulation method is verified. Then, the mechanism and dynamic evolution process of entrained droplets in annular flow are revealed, and the generation and deposition characteristics of entrained droplets are studied. As a result, the closed equations of two-fluid model such as droplet velocity, gas–liquid interface velocity, and gas–liquid interface friction factor are established. The proposed two-fluid model is validated using dual mode ultrasound and differential pressure sensors, demonstrating its good applicability and extrapolation.

Measurement method of gas holdup in horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flow based on fiber-optic probe array

Aiming at the problem of gas holdup measurement in horizontal shale gas wells with low flow rates, a fiber-optic probe array sensor for horizontal gas-liquid stratified flow is designed and developed. The Fluent fluid volume method is used to establish a simulation model of gas-liquid two-phase flow in the horizontal collecting pipe, and a study on the flow characteristics and flow patterns in the gas-liquid two-phase flow in the horizontal collecting pipe with low gas flow is carried out. Based on the acquisition of the fluid flow pattern is stratified flow characteristics, the design of the fiber-optic probe array structure with different numbers and positions of the probes, and the fiber-optic probe array sensor is modeled using the ZEMAX ray tracing software, simulation analysis of its response characteristics in different flow patterns and the array structure selection. Finally, based on the above research, the fiber-optic probe array sensor for gas holdup measurement is designed and developed, and the platform for gas-liquid two-phase flow is constructed and experimentally verified. The experimental results show that the developed fiber-optic probe array sensor has good applicability for gas holdup measurement under stratified flow, and the error of the measurement does not exceed 0.1.

Experimental and modeling study on liquid film thickness of horizontal gas-liquid annular flow using ultrasonic method

In horizontal annular flow, the high gas velocity leads to the strong randomness, rapidity and complexity of the structure and dynamic characteristics of gas-liquid interfacial wave. As one of the important parameters to describe the interfacial wave, the liquid film thickness is significant to study the hydrodynamic characteristics of the gas-liquid two-phase flow. In this paper, the ultrasonic echo resonance main frequency (UERMF) method and the ultrasonic reference signal elimination (URSE) method are compared by numerical simulation method. The minimum liquid film thickness measured by these two methods are 0.3 mm and 0.01 mm, respectively. Experiments are conducted on a stainless steel test section with an inner diameter of 50.0 mm to study annular air-water flow under five different pressure conditions (from 0.1 MPa to 0.7 MPa). The experimental data is processed using the URSE method to analyze the characteristics of the liquid film under different operating conditions. In addition, based on the aforementioned experimental dataset, a comparison is made regarding the performance of existing predictive correlations. It is found that the existing correlations have certain limitations in capturing the variations of liquid film thickness in annular flow, particularly at high pressures and for different pipe diameters. Therefore, a new liquid film thickness correlation suitable for different system pressures and pipe diameters is proposed. By expanding the range of fitted data points (220 data points), the 95 % relative error of improved model is within ±25 % error band for all available data (authors' and literature). The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is 11.08 %. The improved correlation has the applicability and extrapolation for different system pressure and pipe diameter conditions.

Experimental investigation of induced vibrations in horizontal Gas-Liquid flow

One of the governing contributors to offshore structures' (e.g., pipelines and deep-water risers) accumulative long-term fatigue damage is the internal flow-induced vibrations caused by slug flow. Due to the complexity of the numerical modeling of the internal flow and fluid–structure interaction, experimental campaigns are often performed to predict the asset response and provide a benchmark for numerical model validation. In this study, an experimental campaign was conducted which included a unique computer vision data acquisition system and a large-scale facility designed to mimic industry field conditions. This study aims to relate flow parameters to structural response and explain the mechanisms that govern the relationship between both domains.The presented results reveal that the gravitational forces of the fluid dominate the transverse deflections of the pipe and, therefore, the slug liquid holdup, film liquid holdup, and slug length showed strong correlations to pipe deflections. However, centrifugal forces were observed to have significant contributions to pipe deflection for high translational velocity slugs. Additionally, it was found that for most of the test conditions, the primary pipe excitation frequency correlates to the slug frequency. It was discovered that no-slip liquid holdup has a positive correlation to both the magnitude and range of pipe deflection and that increases in superficial gas and liquid velocities led to decreases and increases in pipe deflection, respectively. Furthermore, it was observed that the measured frequency responses of the structure tended to increase with increasing gas velocity until the flow pattern in the pipe began to transition to annular flow.

Robust CNN-based flow pattern identification for horizontal gas-liquid pipe flow using flow-induced vibration

Determination of flow patterns is crucial for the prediction of unsteady flow parameters, which is important for multiphase flow pipeline integrity management. Thus far, various methods have been put forward, however, their robustness has yet to be thoroughly tested across varying environments. Despite recent progress in flow-induced vibration (FIV) of multiphase flows, variability due to measurement approach and pipeline conditions remains an under-investigated area. This paper proposes a non-intrusive, robust convolutional neural network (CNN) flow pattern identification method based on FIV analysis. FIV for horizontal gas–liquid pipe flow under various flow patterns is investigated experimentally by simultaneously analyzing acquired FIV signals and high-speed video. A range of pipeline scenarios is thoroughly studied, encompassing variations in flow conditions, measurement axes, pipe material, and installation conditions. Both Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) and Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) are used to investigate the characteristics of FIV. The results show distinct flow patterns with the FIV signal varying with measurement axes and pipe conditions. Three processes are applied to increase identification robustness: HHT images to eliminate variability due to structure signatures and flow conditions; Ostu’s threshold to eliminate image magnitude difference; and data augmentation, applied to both time signals and images, to increase database diversity. From these, the morphological features associated with flow patterns are extracted. Pattern identification results using a neural network architecture trained by GoogLeNet show over 95% accuracy. To test the generalizability of the proposed flow pattern identification method, the trained method is employed to make predictions in various pipeline scenarios. The results show that the trained model attains an accuracy of over 90% when predicting the flow pattern using data from different axes, and an accuracy above 80% when predicting with different pipe material and installation conditions. During the model training phase, the integration of multiple databases or the implementation of transfer learning can result in a substantial improvement in accuracy, reaching a respectable level of at least 90%.

Analysis, Comparison, and Discussion on the Utilization of the Existing Slug Liquid Holdup Models to Predict the Horizontal Gas-Liquid Plug-to-Slug Flow Transition

AbstractIn horizontal configuration, the gas-liquid intermittent flow can be plug flow or slug flow. Different works have demonstrated that the two flow patterns, despite their similarity, are differents. Thus, it is important to differentiate between them in order to develop more robust predictive models. The limit of the existing model to predict the plug-to-slug flow transition was demonstrated first. After that, 11 existing slug liquid holdup (HLS) models were used in order to test their potential utilization for predicting the plug-to-slug flow transition. Using HLS = 0.9 as the criterion to distinguish between the two regimes, the relationship between the superficial velocities of the two phases was generated. The obtained transition lines were compared with visual observations collected from several published works in order to test the predictions of each model, and for different operating conditions. It was concluded in this paper that the slug liquid holdup models can be easily used for this purpose. Meanwhile, the prediction level of each model depends on the pipe diameter and the viscosity of the liquid phase.

Simultaneous measurement of velocity profile and liquid film thickness in horizontal gas–liquid slug flow by using ultrasonic Doppler method

Horizontal gas–liquid two-phase flows widely exist in chemical engineering, oil/gas production and other important industrial processes. Slug flow pattern is the main form of horizontal gas–liquid flows and characterized by intermittent motion of film region and slug region. This work aims to develop the ultrasonic Doppler method to realize the simultaneous measurement of the velocity profile and liquid film thickness of slug flow. A single-frequency single-channel transducer is adopted in the design of the field-programmable gate array based ultrasonic Doppler system. A multiple echo repetition technology is used to improve the temporal–spatial resolution for the velocity profile. An experiment of horizontal gas–liquid two-phase flow is implemented in an acrylic pipe with an inner diameter of 20 mm. Considering the aerated characteristics of the liquid slug, slug flow is divided into low-aerated slug flow, high-aerated slug flow and pseudo slug flow. The temporal–spatial velocity distributions of the three kinds of slug flows are reconstructed by using the ultrasonic velocity profile measurement. The evolution characteristics of the average velocity profile in slug flows are investigated. A novel method is proposed to derive the liquid film thickness based on the instantaneous velocity profile. The liquid film thickness can be effectively measured by detecting the position and the size of the bubbles nearly below the elongated gas bubble. Compared with the time of flight method, the film thickness measured by the Doppler system shows a higher accuracy as a bubble layer occurs in the film region. The effect of the gas distribution on the film thickness is uncovered in three kinds of slug flows.

Velocity distribution of liquid phase at gas-liquid two-phase stratified flow based on particle image velocimetry

Horizontal gas-liquid flows are commonly encountered in the production section of the oil and gas industry. To further understand all parameters of the pipe cross-section, this paper use particle image velocimetry to study the circular pipe cross-section liquid velocity distribution rule. Firstly the focus is on the software and hardware combination of image correction system, to solve the influence of different refractive indexes of medium and pipeline curvature caused by image distortion. Secondly, the velocity distribution law of the corrected stratified flow (the range of liquid flow of 0.09-0.18 m3/h, and gas flow range of 0.3-0.7 m3/h) cross-section at different flow points of the pipeline cross-section at x=0 and in the Y direction at the maximum liquid velocity is studied. It is found that these distribution laws are caused by the influence of the interphase force of the gas-liquid interface and the resistance of the pipe wall. The current measurements also produce a valuable data set that can be used to further improve the stratified flow model for gas-liquid flow.

Two-phase flow pattern identification in horizontal gas–liquid swirling pipe flow by machine learning method

Gas–liquid two-phase swirling flow has been widely used in nuclear industry. Its flow pattern is fundamental to investigate the two-phase flow. Although flow patterns of non-swirling flow in a horizontal pipe have been investigated for a long history, flow patterns of swirling flow in the pipe are rarely reported. In this paper, gas–liquid two-phase flow patterns of swirling flow generated by a vane-type swirler inside a horizontal pipe were investigated by a visualization experiment. Five swirling flow patterns were observed and recorded by the backlight imaging method. Then image processing method was used to obtain void fraction, and the statistical analysis (CDF and PDF) of void fraction for each swirling flow patterns was performed. Owing to the distinguished and stable feature of PDF signals, four parameters describing the characteristics of PDF signals have been proposed as the indicator of machine learning method. Finally, five algorithms of machine learning method have been used to identify the swirling flow patterns, and RUSBoost tree algorithm performs best with an accuracy of 97.4%.

Liquid holdup modeling analysis in horizontal gas–liquid slug flow

In slug flow, the wetted wall fraction and liquid holdup of the liquid film section are key parameters affecting the mass transfer and radial velocity distribution of the liquid film, the friction pressure drop, the momentum transfer between the two phases, and heat transfer characteristics. A modified wetted wall fraction and liquid holdup model based on the modified apparent rough surface (MARS) model is proposed in this study, which considers the friction coefficient and shear stress on the gas–wall, liquid–wall and gas–liquid interfaces and introduced the modified average interface velocity of the liquid film. Air–water slug flow experiments were in a 50 mm diameter acrylic glass pipe equipped with a high-speed camera. The edge detection operator was optimized to obtain the wetted wall fraction and liquid holdup at the liquid film section based on image analysis technology. A comparative analysis of the model performance shows that the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the wetted wall fraction model is 9.4%, and the 96.1% relative deviations are within the ±20% error band. The MAPE of the liquid holdup model is 8.04%, and 93.4% relative error is within the ±25% error band. The modified MARS model has good prediction ability for the wetted wall fraction and liquid holdup of the gas–liquid slug flow.

Identification of Horizontal Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow Regime using Deep Learning

Two-phase flow is of great importance in various industrial processes. A characteristic feature of two-phase flow is that it can acquire various spatial distribution of phases to form different flow patterns/regimes. The knowledge of flow regime is very important for quantifying the pressure drop, the stability and safety of two-phase flow systems and it holds great significance in petrochemical and thermonuclear industries today. The objective of this study is to develop a methodology for identification of flow regime using dynamic pressure signals and deep learning techniques. Stratified, slug and annular flow regimes were simulated using a Level-Set (LS) method coupled with Volume of Fluid (VOF) method in a 6 m horizontal pipe with 0.050 m inner diameter. Dynamic pressure signals were collected at a strategic location. These signals were converted to scalograms and used as inputs in deep learning architectures like ResNet-50 and ShuffleNet. Both architectures were effective in classifying different flow regime and recorded testing accuracies of 85.7% and 82.9% respectively. According to our knowledge no similar research has been reported in literature, where various Convolutional Neural Networks are used along with dynamic pressure signals to identify flow regime in horizontal pipe. This research provides a benchmark for future research to use dynamic pressure for identification of two-phase flow regimes. This research provides a benchmark for future research to use dynamic pressure for identification of two-phase flow regimes. This study can be extended by collecting data over broader range of flow parameters and different geometries.

The Gas-Liquid Flow Rate Measurement Based on Multisensors and Machine Learning

Gas-liquid two-phase flow non-separation measurement plays a crucial role in industrial production and two-phase flow theory research. In this paper, an intelligent multi-sensing system is designed for horizontal gas-liquid flow measurement, which integrates near-infrared (NIR), differential pressure (DP) and acoustic emission (AE) technology. The interaction and disturbance information of the gas-liquid phase are detection by the AE and NIR sensors, and then transformed into the form and margin factor which reflect the void fraction and flow rate of gas liquid flow respectively. Both of them are input as feature variables into the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) machine learning model for predicting the liquid phase volume fraction, and the best fusion solution is proposed. The Analysis and evaluation have been conducted in several classic correlations, and the Collins correlation is selected to optimize by LASSO optimization algorithm. The prediction accuracy is improved by 7.14% compared to the Collins correlation, and the MAPE for liquid mass flow rate of slug flow was 8.75% and 89.47% of the predictions were within 20% relative error.

Prediction of Horizontal Gas–Liquid Segregated Flow Regimes with an All Flow Regime Multifluid Model

The generalized multifluid modelling approach (GEMMA) has been developed to handle the multiplicity of flow regimes and the coexistence of interfaces of largely different scales in multiphase flows. The solver, based on the OpenFOAM reactingEulerFoam family of solvers, adds interface resolving-like capabilities to the multifluid solver in the cells occupied by large interfaces. In this paper, GEMMA is further developed to predict stratified and slug flow regimes in horizontal ducts. The suppression of the turbulence and the wall-like behaviour of large interfaces is modelled with an additional dissipation source. This enables an accurate prediction of the velocity and of the turbulence kinetic energy in a stratified channel flow and the capturing of the formation and the travel of liquid slugs in an annulus. Large interfaces are identified and tracked, not only in the smooth and wavy stratified regimes but also in the much more perturbed interfaces of liquid slugs. The present work confirms GEMMA to be a reliable approach to provide all flow regime modelling capabilities. Further development will be focused on large interface momentum-transfer modelling, responsible for the overestimation of the interfacial shear and the limited liquid excursion during slugs, and the extension to interface break-up and the entrainment of bubbles and droplets, to handle the entire range of regimes encountered in horizontal flows.

Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow Regime in a Horizontal Channel Under Transverse Vibration

This paper presents experiments carried out to study the influences of transverse vibration on horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flow. The experiments considered the transverse vibration over a wide range of vibration frequencies and vibration amplitudes. Five typical flow regimes were observed. The fluid flow conditions in steady state and transverse vibration were compared. The traditional flow regime transition lines did not match the gas-liquid flow in channel under transverse vibration. The results suggest that vibration frequency mainly affected the flow regime by promoting the aggregation of gas slug, while vibration amplitude mainly influenced the fluctuation height of the gas and liquid interface.

A novel horizontal gas–liquid pipe separator for wet gas based on the phase-isolation

This paper proposes a novel horizontal gas–liquid pipe separator with a compact structure based on the phase-isolation. In the separator, the gas–liquid two-phase flow is firstly isolated as a swirling annular flow by a swirler, where gas core and liquid film spiral and flow forward in parallel. Based on the flow characteristics of the swirling liquid film, a downward tangential liquid extraction channel is designed, which is tangent to the swirl trajectory of the liquid film. Then the swirling liquid film can be directly separated by falling into the downward tangential channel under the combined action of its kinetic energy and gravity. On the basis of this structure, the inner thread on the wall, different lengths of liquid extraction channel and tangential gas return channel are designed individually to study their effect on the separation efficiency. Experiments were carried out to investigate the separation performance of the separator. The results show that when the superficial velocity of gas reaches 20 m/s, the separation efficiency can be higher than 94% with the superficial velocity of liquid in a large range of 0.02–0.264 m/s. The design of inner thread is beneficial for separation when the liquid film has a certain thickness. The length of liquid extraction channel has an opposite influence on separation efficiency at low gas velocity and high gas velocity. The gas return flow channel deteriorates the separation performance for the reason that the returning gas will carry a large number of liquid droplets into the main pipe.

Gas Holdup Measurement of Horizontal Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flows by Using a Novel Combined Ultrasonic-Conductance Sensor

Horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flows widely exist in petroleum, chemical, and other important industrial fields. The flow structures forming during gas-liquid flows can be complex. The transition between flow patterns greatly depends on many factors, such as the fluid properties and the flow rate. Notably, there are multi-scale flow structures even in the same flow pattern. Therefore, it is a great challenge to accurately measure the gas holdup in the horizontal gas-liquid flows by single-mode sensor technology. In this study, we designed a novel combined ultrasonic-conductance sensor (CUCS) consisting of a multi-electrode conductance sensor (MCS) and a transmission ultrasonic sensor (TUS). A flow pattern map of the horizontal gas-liquid flow was obtained in the experiment, and the responses of the CUCS under different flow patterns were collected. The stratified smooth (ST) flow, stratified wavy (SW) flow, and Taylor bubbles in intermittent flow were visualized by the MCS, and the corresponding measurement model of the gas holdup was presented. For the slug region (SR) in intermittent flow, a physical model for measuring the gas holdup was established based on the attenuation characteristics of the transmitted ultrasonic wave. The result indicates that the CUCS has a higher measurement accuracy for the gas holdup of the horizontal gas-liquid flows with different flow patterns.

Application of the laser-induced fluorescence to study local characteristics of a gas-liquid flow in rectangular microchannel

The Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) method was used to characterize liquid phase distribution in rectangular slit microchannel with cross-section 200×1205 μm for horizontal gas-liquid flow. Ethanol and nitrogen were used as working liquid and gas accordingly. The feature of this study is an application of hydraulic focusing cross-junction mixer for obtaining elongated bubble and transition flows in the microchannel with a high aspect ratio. Using LIF measurements for elongated bubble and transition flows the liquid film distributions were obtained for different distances from the bubble top and average liquid film thickness was compared with the prediction according to Taylor’s law.

Evaluation of velocity fields in horizontal gas-liquid intermittent flows using Stereoscopic-PIV and instantaneous masking procedure

The main goal of this work was to obtain well-converged liquid velocity profiles for intermittent gas-liquid flows in a horizontal pipe. To this end, air and water with superficial velocities of JG = 0.5 m/s and JL = 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 m/s, respectively, were driven into a 18-m acrylic test section with an inner diameter of 40 mm. All three-components of the velocity vectors were measured in a pipe cross-section using a highfrequency stereoscopic PIV system, together with the laser induced fluorescence technique. Photogates were used to measure the unit cell translational velocity, as well as to trigger data acquisition, allowing the calculation of ensemble-averaged velocity fields at specific positions, referenced to the gas-bubble nose tip position. An instantaneous image masking procedure was implemented, allowing the determination of non-dimensional ensemble-averaged velocity profile in the liquid film, referenced to gas-bubble boundary. The high-frequency system employed allowed the determination of the influence of the faster-moving gas bubble on the liquid velocity field in the plug region. The data presented are relevant to the validation and improvement of one-dimensional two-phase numerical models, as well as to better understand this complex flow.

Experimental investigation of gas-liquid flow in a vertical venturi installed downstream of a horizontal blind tee flow conditioner and the flow regime transition

A venturi device is commonly used as an integral part of a multiphase flowmeter (MPFM) in real-time oil-gas production monitoring. Partial flow mixing is required by installing the venturi device vertically downstream of a blind tee pipework that conditions the incoming horizontal gas-liquid flow (for an accurate determination of individual phase fraction and flow rate). To study the flow-mixing effect of the blind tee, high-speed video flow visualization of gas-liquid flows has been performed at blind tee and venturi sections by using a purpose-built transparent test rig over a wide range of superficial liquid velocities (0.3–2.4 m/s) and gas volume fractions (10–95%). There is little ‘homogenization’ effect of the blind tee on the incoming intermittent horizontal flow regimes across the tested flow conditions, with the flow remaining intermittent but becoming more axis-symmetric and predictable in the venturi measurement section. A horizontal (blind tee) to vertical (venturi) flow-pattern transition map is proposed based on gas and liquid mass fluxes (weighted by the Baker parameters). Flow patterns can be identified from the mean and variance of a fast electrical capacitance holdup measured at the venturi throat.