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High liquid viscosity effects on wall and interfacial shear stresses in horizontal
liquid-gas flows
Yabin Zhao, Hoi Yeung and Liyun Lao
Process Systems Engineering Group, Department of Offshore, Process and Energy Engineering, Cranfield University,
Cranfield, MK43 0AL, United Kingdom
Keywords: Liquid-gas flow; Liquid viscosity effect; Slug flow; Shear stress; Interfacial friction factor
Abstract
The characteristics of wall and interfacial shear stress in high viscosity liquid and gas flow are studied experimentally. The
experiments are performed on the 1 inch and 3 inch flow facilities which have 0.026 m ID and 5.5 m long, and 0.074 m ID
and 17.0 m long horizontal pipes, respectively. Liquid with a range of viscosity from 1000 cP to 7500 cP is used. Mainly slug
flow with special characteristics is observed for the flow conditions tested. The pressure drop and liquid holdup data are
measured by using pressure transducers and Electronic Capacitance Tomography (ECT) sensors. Based on results of pressure
gradient in slug unit and equivalent liquid height in slug film region, liquid wall and equivalent interfacial shear stress are
estimated using a two-fluid model. Results show liquid/wall shear stress in high liquid viscosity two-phase flow is relatively
independent of gas velocity. The estimated interfacial shear stress indicates a strong dependence on liquid viscosity. A new
correlation with consideration of liquid viscosity is proposed to predict the effective interfacial friction factor in high
viscosity liquid and gas flow.
Introduction
experimental data:
fl 24 Rel 1
f g 0.046 Re g 0.2
for
Re g 2100
for
Re g 4000
Re l 4000
Rel 4000
(2)
for
fi
1
fg
fi
fg
1 15(
for
hf
D
) 0.5 (
U sg
U sg ,t
1)
for
U sg U sg ,t
U sg U sg ,t
(3)
(4)
(1)
U sg ,t is the critical gas superficial velocity at which large
U sg ,t , w 5(
go
g
) 0.5
th
Subscripts
f
Film zone
g
Gas phase
i
Interface
ie
Equivalent interface
l
Liquid phase
m
Mixture phase
s
Superficial or slug body
t
Translational
u
Slug unit
w
Water
Experimental Facility
Experiment setup
Nomenclature
A
C
D
E
g
h
k
L
P
S
U
n
Area (m2)
Constants
Pipe diameter (m)
Liquid holdup
Acceleration due to gravity (m. s-2)
Liquid height (m)
Wave numbers (m-1)
Length (m)
Pressure (kPa)
Perimeter (m)
Velocity (m/s)
Tuning number or index in power law
Greek letters
Density (kg/m3)
th
Density
(kg/m3)
1.293
air
0.017
1inch
918
CYL680
35001, 7500
3inch
918
CYL680
1000, 3500
Test matrix
(m/s)
API
gravity
0.3-9.0
---
0.031
0.06-0.2
22.67
0.1-0.2
a.
3500 cP
b. 7500 cP
Figure 2 Flow regime map in 1 inch experiments
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a.
1000 cP
Figure 4: Comparison of liquid height in film zone with
different liquid viscosities in 1 inch and 3 inch pipe
The liquid holdup value at film zone is often represented
by a liquid height which is of great importance for model
derivation. Many instability studies for stratified and slug
flow revealed that the height of liquid in film zone is a
critical parameter which contributes to the formation of
slug flow. In the present study, the slug film region can be
identified by processing instantaneous liquid volume
fraction measured by the ECT sensors. Based on
geometrical relationships, an equilibrium relative liquid
height, i.e. the ratio of liquid film height to the pipes inner
diameter, is calculated. But this liquid level might include
the film on the top wall and therefore an equivalent liquid
film height is introduced. Results are plotted against gas
superficial velocity for different liquid viscosities as shown
in Figure 6. It is found that with high viscosity, the
equivalent liquid height at the slug film zone might not be
as sensitive to gas superficial velocity as that of low
viscosity liquid, as found by Pan (2010). An increase of
gas flow rate only slightly reduces liquid height, but it may
enhance the interaction between slug body and gas core
which probably affects the gas aeration. In addition, the
increase of liquid superficial velocity over the present
range tested leads to an insignificant increase of liquid
height. Similar trends are found by Pan (2010), in which
slug film height in water/gas and oil/gas (48 cP) flows was
measured by a GAMMA densitometer. Results are shown
in Figure 6 and the comparison of different liquid viscosity
case reveals effects of liquid viscosity on the liquid height.
It is found that liquid height is a function of liquid
viscosity, and at higher liquid viscosity it has a higher
value. When gas superficial velocity is low, liquid height in
film region is still high enough to meet the requirement for
slug formation. However, some uncertainties might exist in
the measurement. One of them is the effect of slug
frequency. High slug frequency might not allow oil
draining and completely form an oil film on the wall.
Kora et al.(2011) also found it was very difficult to
measure liquid height for high viscosity liquid as slow
drainage of high viscosity oil results in oil film on the top
wall. The relative liquid height in the 3 inch pipe is also
presented in Figure 6. No significant differences are found
from the comparison between the 1 inch and 3 inch pipe.
b. 3500 cP
Figure 3: Flow regime map in 1 inch experiments
Compared with the 1 inch regime map, slight differences
are found in the 3 inch flow regime map. As seen in Figure
5, intermittent flow region in the 3 inch pipe seems to be
reduced, even though it still shows to be the dominant flow
regime when compared with low viscosity liquid. This
difference might be explained by the mechanism of slug
formation. In the small diameter pipe, the unstable waves
formed at the liquid-gas interface tend to bridge the pipe
with less difficulty due to the lower ceiling. Slug flows
will maintain till rolling waves are generated at high gas
superficial velocities. But in the large diameter pipe, due to
the higher ceiling, unstable waves need much higher gas
energy to form slug flows. When slug is formed, it is
difficult to maintain and more easily replaced by annular
flow.
It is worth noting that stratified flow was not observed in
any experimental conditions in this study, even at the
minimal oil velocity of 0.06 m/s. One probable reason
could be explained by Kelvin-Helmholtz stability for liquid
and gas flow. Barnea (1991) found that the stable stratified
flow was replaced by intermittent flow region at gas
velocity lower than 0.1 m/s when liquid viscosity was
higher than 1000 cP. If liquid viscosity continues to
increase, the critical gas velocity is even lower. Marquez
and Trujillo (2010) investigated flow characteristics with
liquid viscosity of 10 cP, 392 cP and 1000 cP. They
generate flow regime transitions based on the study of
viscous KH instability. The results reported have similar
trends with the present work.
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l (U t U f )(U s U f ) g (U t U g )(U s U g )
Lf
f Sf
Af
g Sg
Ag
i Si (
1
1
)0
Af
Ag
(9)
Lu
A Lu
A
Lu
(10)
(5)
(1 E s )(U t U b ) (1 E f )(U t U g )
(6)
(11)
gas and liquid mass flow rate at the inlet and outlet of slug
unit should be balanced, and continuity equations for gas
and liquid phase are given:
Es (Ut Ul ) E f (Ut U f )
P
D Ls Lu
1
{[( u ) expt s
]
A g S g }
Sf
Lu
A Lu L f
ie i
1 Af Ag l (U t U f )(U s U f ) g (U t U g )(U s U g )
[
]
Si A
Lf
1 Af Ag f S f g S g
[
]
Si A
Af
Ag
(12)
where, E s , E f are liquid fraction in liquid slug, and film
(7)
LuU sg Ls (1 E s )U s L f (1 E f )U g
(8)
i fi
l , g , sU f , g , s 2
2
g (U g U f ) | U g U f |
(13)
th
(14)
(15)
1
U s 1.39
1 (
)
8.66
(16)
f l 20.76 Re l
(18)
Slug length
Al-Safran et al.(2011) studied experimentally the effect of
liquid viscosity on slug length in horizontal gas-liquid flow
and derived a new correlation in which additional viscosity
term is taken account. It is shown as:
32
l (l g ) g
D
Ls
2.63
D
l
(17)
th
(19)
Acknowledgements
(20)
References
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Two-phase
bubble
flow.