Development of Liquid Slug Length in Gas-Liquid Slug Flow along Horizontal Pipeline: Experiment and Simulation1

The liquid slug length distribution is crucial for designing the downstream processing system with multiphase pipeline. Experiments were conducted in a 133m long horizontal test loop. The measurements were performed by conductivity probes to determine the liquid slug length distribution. The data covered both the slug and plug flow regimes. From experimental results, the mean liquid slug lengths were relatively insensitive to gas and liquid flow rates in the higher mixture velocity range. But in the lower mixture velocity range, the mean liquid slug length decreased and then increased with mixture velocity. It shows that the development length of slug flow was longer than x/D= 1157. A slug tracking model was adapted to study the evolution of liquid slug length distribution in a horizontal pipeline. In the present model, the wake effect of elongated bubble and the pressure drop due to acceleration are taken into account and random slug lengths are introduced at the entrance. The results of the model are compared with the measured slug length distributions of slug flow regime. It shows that the predicted mean and maximum slug lengths are in agreement with the experimental data at x/D=1157 and the form of the slug length distributions is also predicted well by the model.