Analysis of Numerical Simulation of Gas-Liquid Slug Flow Using Slug Tracking Model

The distribution of the interfaces in gas-liquid two-phase flows in pipes can assume several shapes. Amongst those shapes, the slug flow pattern stands out as the most common one and occurs quite often in oil and gas production due to the flow rates and geometries used. This pattern is characterized by the succession of the so-called unit cells, that is, a flow structure composed of an aerated liquid slug and an elongated bubble surrounded by a liquid film. Due to its complexity, the study and understanding of this pattern’s behaviour becomes very important. The main methodologies used to describe slug flows are the steady-state one-dimensional models, based on the slug unit concept, and the transient approach, which takes the flow intermittence into account. The slug tracking model is one such transient approach, which considers slugs and elongated bubbles as separated bodies and analyzes the evolution along the flow and the interaction between those bodies. Whenever this model is numerically implemented, its initial conditions are important parameters that affect the results. The goal of this article is to study the influence of the initial conditions on slug flow simulation using the slug tracking model. A computer program written in Fortran95 using a slug tracking model to provide the characteristic parameters of slug flows such as the bubble and slug lengths and void fraction in the bubble region was built and used. The results were compared to experimental data and showed the important role the initial conditions play on the computational simulation of slug flow.