A Slug Damper for Compact Separators

A common concern with the reduced capacity of compact gas/liquid separators, such as the GLCC^©, is that flow fluctuations are passed through the separator with little dampening. Rate sensitive devices, e.g., meters, hydrocyclones, etc., located downstream of the compact separator often have a desired turn-down of less than 10 to 1. However, in slug flow, the instantaneous liquid flow rate in the body of a slug can easily exceed 10 times the average liquid flow rate, with a dynamic range closer to 100 to 1. Consequently, use of the GLCC requires careful consideration of the downstream systems and their susceptibility to flow fluctuations. The slug damper was developed to reduce the magnitude of short period flow fluctuations by providing an inexpensive way of increasing liquid retaining capacity of the inlet piping to the GLCC. These preliminary results show that the slug damper system does indeed dramatically reduce exiting flow rate fluctuations from incoming slug flow. Furthermore, the slug damper performed in a predictable manner with no observed instabilities or unusual operation modes.