Avni Serdar Kaya

Petroleum Soft, Inc., Tulsa, OK 74133-1697

X. Tom Chen
Texaco EPTD, Humble, TX 77338

Investigation of Transition From Annular to Intermittent Flow in Pipes

A new unied model is proposed for the transition from annular to intermittent ow patterns for the entire range of pipe inclination angles. Experimentally, it has been observed that the transition from annular ow takes place at a critical void fraction. To obtain a transition boundary equation, conservation of momentum equations for gas and the liquid lm are combined and solved with the critical void fraction. The new model captures the correct transition characteristics, agrees favorably with experimental ow pattern data, and performs the best when compared with previous transition models. S0195-07380000601-4

Cem Sarica
Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 122 Hosler Building, University Park, PA 16802

James P. Brill
Department of Petroleum Engineering, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104-3189

Introduction
Two-phase ow in the petroleum industry is a very common occurrence because of the simultaneous production of gas and liquid from hydrocarbon reservoirs. When gas and liquid ow simultaneously in a pipe, various ow congurations or patterns may form with different spatial distributions of the gas/liquid interface. The existing ow patterns depend primarily on the liquid and gas ow rates, the physical properties of the two phases, and the geometry of the conduit inclination angle and diameter. A knowledge of the ow pattern in a pipe is essential to the design engineer because the ow hydrodynamics and the transfer mechanisms of mass, momentum, and heat differ signicantly from one pattern to another. Two-phase gas-liquid ow in pipes exhibits ve basic ow patterns: stratied, bubble, slug, churn, and annular ows. Annular ow occurs at high gas ow rates and low to medium liquid ow rates in upward ow. In downward ow, it occurs at low to moderate liquid ow rates and low to high gas ow rates. Annular ow is characterized by the liquid owing as a lm around the pipe wall, surrounding a high-velocity gas core, which may contain entrained liquid droplets Fig. 1. Several mechanisms and physical models associated with the transition from annular ow have been proposed. Turner et al. 1 and Ilobi and Ikoku 2 studied the minimum gas velocity required for liquid removal from vertical wells. Taitel et al. 3 used the same concept to predict the annular ow transition boundary. Taitel and Dukler 4 presented a model for predicting the transition to annular ow in near-horizontal pipes that requires unstable stratied ow with a liquid level that is insufcient to form the complete bridge, required for a slug ow conguration. Barnea 5 developed a unied annular ow transition model based on two different mechanisms: instability of the lm at low liquid ow rates and spontaneous blockage of the gas core at high liquid ow rates. The Barnea model was later modied by Ansari et al. 6 to account for liquid entrainment in the gas core and rhombohedral packing of gas bubbles in the liquid slug. All annular transition models are terminated by the stratied ow transition boundary wherever this ow pattern exists. This boundary can be predicted by the Taitel and Dukler model for
Contributed by the Petroleum Division and presented at the 20th Annual EnergySources Technology Conference and Exhibition, Houston, Texas, February 13, 1999, of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. Manuscript received by the Petroleum Division, October 24, 1998; revised manuscript received January 4, 2000. Associate Technical Editor: W. P. Jepson.

horizontal and downward ow. However, at more steep downward inclination angles, another mechanism plays a role in the transition from stratied ow to annular ow which can be predicted by the Barnea et al. 7 model. The transition mechanism in the model reveals that, due to a high liquid ow rate, liquid droplets are torn from the wavy interface and may wet the upper part of the pipe, forming the annular ow conguration. In horizontal and downward ow, the mechanism for transition from annular ow based on lm instability never exists; therefore, the transition boundary is predicted by a spontaneous blockage mechanism. Thus, the new model based on a critical void fraction works for the transition to intermittent ow and other boundaries identifying the annular ow region are predicted by aforementioned methods in the new unied model.

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of annular ow

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In this study, we briey review the existing transition mechanisms and propose a new unied model for predicting the transition from annular ow to intermittent ow for the entire range of inclination angles. Comparisons of the different transition models against ow pattern data are presented.

Spontaneous Blockage. At high liquid ow rates, a thick lm is formed, which eventually bridges the core, resulting in intermittent ow slug or churn ows. This occurs when H LF 0.24 (10) Ansari et al. Model. Ansari et al. 6 modied the Barnea model to account for liquid entrainment in the gas core. Core properties with liquid entrainment have been incorporated in the denition of the Lockhart and Martinelli parameters: Y M and X M . They are given as XM

Review of Existing Transition Models

Several models have been proposed for the annular ow pattern transition. Here, a brief description and assessment of each model is given. Taitel et al. Model. For vertical pipes, Taitel et al. 3 claimed that annular ow cannot exist unless the gas velocity in the gas core is sufcient to lift the entrained droplets. They developed the following transition criterion based on a balance between gravitational and drag forces acting on the largest liquid droplet:

1 FE 2

f F dp / dL SL f SL dp / dL SC

(11) (12)

Y M

g sin L C dp / dL SC

SG 3.1

g L G 2g

1/4

(1)

For the interfacial friction correlating parameter, Ansari et al. found that a correlation developed by Wallis 10 worked well for thin liquid lms, while the Whalley and Hewitt 9 correlation performed well for thick lms. Thus Z 1 300 Z 1 24

This criterion implies that the annular ow transition boundary is independent of supercial liquid velocity. Barnea Model. Barnea 5 attributed the annular ow transition to blockage of the gas core. She postulated that the blockage might result from two possible mechanisms, instability of the liquid lm and spontaneous blockage. Instability of the Liquid Film. At low liquid ow rates, the instability occurs because of the low core shear stress, resulting in downward ow of the lm and blockage of the gas core. Instability of the lm occurs when Y M 2 1.5H LF
3 H LF 1 1.5H LF

L G

for FE 0.9

(13) (14)

1/3

for FE 0.9

The supercial friction gradients for the liquid and the gas core are given in Eqs. 7 and 8. In these equations, supercial core velocity, core density, and core viscosity are dened as follows:

SC FE SL SG C L LC G 1 LC

(15) (16) (17)

X2 M

(2)

C L LC G 1 LC

H LF is the fraction of the pipe cross section that is occupied by the liquid lm and can be expressed in terms of the minimum dimensionless lm thickness, , as H LF 4 1 tion: X2 Z M Y M 0 2.5 4 1 1 4 1 1 3 4 (4) (3)

LC is the no-slip liquid holdup caused by the entrained liquid in the homogeneous mixture of gas and liquid in the core with respect to the core cross section, and is given by LC 1 FE SL / SG FE SL The entrainment fraction, FE is given by Wallis 10 as FE 1 exp 0.125 10000 SG G / G / L 0.5 1.5 (19) The friction factors f F , f SL , and f SC can be obtained from a Moody diagram for the corresponding Reynolds numbers given in the following: N Re, F L SL 1 FE D / L N Re,SL L SLD / L N Re,SC C v SCD / C (20) (21) (22) (18)

can be obtained from the following combined momentum equa-

Y M and X M are the modied Lockhart and Martinelli 8 parameters, expressed as XM

dp / dL SL dp / dL SC

(5) (6)

g sin L C Y M dp / dL SC

The supercial frictional pressure gradients for the liquid and the gas core are given, respectively, as
2 / 2D dp / dL SL f SL L SL 2 / 2D dp / dL SC f SC C SC

The mechanism of bridging, based on the minimum liquid holdup to form a liquid slug, is modied for rhombohedral packing of bubbles and liquid entrainment as follows:

(7) (8)

H LF LC

AC 0.12 A

(23)

Proposed New Model

In annular ow, decreasing the gas ow rate reduces the void fraction, and a critical void fraction may be reached for which liquid bridges may be formed by the crests of interfacial waves. Under this condition, the transition from annular ow to intermittent churn or slug ow takes place. By comparing void fraction data with theoretical predictions for annular ow and intermittent ow, Wallis obtained a critical void fraction of 0.80. Barnea suggested that when the void fraction is lower than 0.76, annular ow will change into intermittent ow because of the liquid blockage MARCH 2000, Vol. 122 23

Z in Eq. 4 is a correlating factor for interfacial friction and lm thickness. Barnea used the Whalley and Hewitt 9 correlation for predicting Z Z 1 300 (9)

In the model, Barnea assumed no entrainment in the gas core. Therefore, the supercial core velocity, SC is the supercial gas velocity and the core density and viscosity are the gas density and viscosity. Journal of Energy Resources Technology

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of the gas core. Chisholm 11 correlated extensive data for void fraction. He found that, up to a specic void fraction of about 0.75, the void fraction varies almost linearly with the gas volumetric ow fraction no-slip gas holdup. In their experimental study, Jepson and Taylor 12 also observed that liquid lm void fraction tends to a limit of 0.76 as the gas volumetric ow fraction is increased in intermittent ow. After the void fraction exceeds 0.75, it increases exponentially with an increase in gas volumetric ow fraction. This can be interpreted as follows. When the void fraction is less than 0.75, liquid is the continuous phase, and gas is distributed in the continuous liquid phase, whether the two-phase ow is in bubbly ow, slug ow, or churn ow. Also, the void fraction of these gas discontinuous ow patterns has almost the same prole versus the gas volumetric ow fraction. When the void fraction is greater than 0.75, annular ow occurs in the pipe, and both the gas and liquid phases are continuous. The void fraction prole of annular ow versus the gas volumetric ow fraction is totally different from that of the gas discontinuous ow patterns. Therefore, after Chen 13, the transition criterion from annular ow is set at

64X 2 M Y M 162.2 1 3

SL SG

(32)

where the Lockhart and Martinelli parameters, Y M and X M , are the same as given in the Barnea model by Eqs. 5 and 6.

Comparison and Discussion of Transition Models

Performance of Models for Low-Pressure Systems. Figures 210 compare the proposed new model and previous transition models with the Shoham 14 data for air-water ow at 1.0 bar and 25C in 5.1-cm-dia pipes having different inclination angles

0.75

(24)

Since it is normally assumed that the gas phase in intermittent ow does not have entrained liquid droplets, the no entrainment assumption can also be made at the transition from annular to intermittent ow. Chen used this assumption and combined conservation of momentum in the gas core and the liquid lm, which yields

is i

1 SL 1 L L G g sin 0 AG AL AL

(25)

In Eq. 25, i is the interfacial shear stress, L is the shear stress at the pipe wall, A G and A L are the cross-sectional areas occupied by the gas core and liquid lm, respectively, and S i and S L are the perimeters upon which i and L act, respectively. The shear stresses are estimated in the conventional manner

Fig. 2 Comparison of annular ow transition models 90 deg, 5.1 cm pipe

L f L

2 L L , 2

i f i

G G L 2 2

(26)

The liquid/wall friction factor, f L , is evaluated from f L C L

LD L L L

(27)

where D L 4 A L / S L is the hydraulic diameter of the liquid lm. Wallis proposed the following simple relation for evaluation of the interfacial fraction factor: f i f G 1 75 1 (28)
Fig. 3 Comparison of annular ow transition models 70 deg, 5.1 cm pipe

where the gas phase friction factor, f G , in the absence of the liquid lm is evaluated from: f G C G

L D G SG G

(29)

In the present work, the following coefcients in the friction factor correlation are used: C G C L 0.046, m n 0.20 for turbulent ow and C G C L 16, m n 1 for laminar ow. The conguration of the liquid lm can be given as follows: S i D 0.5, A G S L D (30)

D2 , 4

A L 1

D2 4

(31)

Upon substitution of Eqs. 26 31 and the transition criterion, Eq. 24, into Eq. 25, the following transition boundary equation can be obtained: 24 Vol. 122, MARCH 2000

Fig. 4 Comparison of annular ow transition models 30 deg, 5.1 cm pipe

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Fig. 5 Comparison of annular ow transition models 1 deg, 5.1 cm pipe

Fig. 8 Comparison of annular ow transition models 30 deg, 5.1 cm pipe

Fig. 6 Comparison of annular ow transition models 0 deg, 5.1 cm pipe

Fig. 9 Comparison of annular ow transition models 80 deg, 5.1 cm pipe

Fig. 7 Comparison of annular ow transition models 1 deg, 5.1 cm pipe

Fig. 10 Comparison of annular ow transition models 90 deg, 5.1 cm pipe

for upward and downward directions. Figures 1113 compare the transition models with Shohams horizontal and vertical upow and downow data in 2.54-cm pipe. Although Barneas 5 spontaneous blockage criterion gives satisfactory predictions with the correct trend, the lm stability criterion displays an incorrect trend of decreasing supercial gas velocity with increasing supercial liquid velocity over part of the transition boundary. In Fig. 5, for Journal of Energy Resources Technology

1 deg inclination angle, all models show inaccurate results with respect to the data. In horizontal and near horizontal pipes, particularly for the low liquid ow rates, the poor performance of the spontaneous blockage or critical void fraction mechanisms is not surprising due to the low liquid supply. The mechanisms for the Ansari et al. model and the Barnea model are almost identical. However, the blockage criterion in the Ansari et al. model has MARCH 2000, Vol. 122 25

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Fig. 11 Comparison of annular ow transition models 0 deg, 2.54 cm pipe

Fig. 14 New model annular ow transition boundaries for different inclination angles 5.1 cm pipe

eter on the transition from annular ow. The new model also displays the physically correct trend for both low and high liquid ow rates. Performance of Models for High-Pressure Systems. No published ow pattern data for high-pressure, high-temperature HPHT wellbore conditions could be found in the open literature. The only way to evaluate transition models for HPHT conditions is to test them against the expanded Tulsa University Fluid Flow Projects TUFFP well data bank and compare their pressure drop results. The expanded TUFFP well data bank consists of 2052 well cases from various sources covering a wide range of ow parameters. Comparison Criteria. A variety of statistical parameters are used to evaluate the model predictions using the entire data bank. Following are the denitions of the statistical parameters used. Average Percentage Error 1 E1 N where e ri P i ,calc P i ,mean / P i ,meas (34)

Fig. 12 Comparison of annular ow transition models 90 deg, 2.54 cm pipe

e
i1

ri

100

(33)

and N is the number of well cases that successfully converged. E 1 indicates the overall trend of the performance relative to the measured pressure drop. Absolute Average Percentage Error 1 E2 N
N

i1 ri E 1

e ri 100

(35)

The absolute average percentage error will eliminate the canceling effect of E 1. This parameter indicates the general percentage error of the calculations. Standard Deviation
Fig. 13 Comparison of annular ow transition models 90 deg, 2.54 cm pipe
N

E3

e
i1

/ N1

(36)

been modied to incorporate liquid entrainment. Nevertheless, the same trend is observed for both the Ansari et al. and the Barnea models. Figure 14 shows the sensitivity of the new model for different inclination angles in 5.1-cm-dia pipe. The new model properly represents the inuences of both liquid ow rate and pipe diam26 Vol. 122, MARCH 2000

The standard deviation indicates the scatter of the relative error about the average error. The statistical parameters described in the foregoing are based on the relative pressure drop error, rather than the actual pressure drop error. Relatively small pressure drop errors in wells that experience a small pressure drop may give a large percentage error, even though the predicted pressure drop is not that far from the actual measurement. To make the statistics independent of the Transactions of the ASME

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Table 1 Results of transition models pressure drop calculations against TUFFP well data bank

magnitude of the relative pressure drop, a set of statistical parameters based on the actual pressure drop is used, dened as e i P i ,calc P i ,meas (37) If we replace e ri with e i in Eqs. 33, 35, and 36, the new parameters can be dened as E4 E5
N

1 N

e
i1 N i1

(38)

E3 E4 E5 E6 f F FE g H HF L N N Re p RPF S v X Y Z C calc F G L LC LF M meas mn n,m S SC SL SG t

standard deviation of average error average error absolute average error standard deviation of average error friction factor lm fraction of liquid entrained in gas core gravity acceleration average holdup fraction hydraulic lm length number of converged well cases Reynolds no. pressure relative performance factor wetted perimeter velocity Lockhart and Martinelli parameter Lockhart and Martinelli parameter correlating factor for interfacial friction void fraction ratio of lm thickness to diameter no-slip holdup fraction dynamic viscosity angle from horizontal density surface tension shear stress core calculated lm gas liquid gas core with liquid entrainment liquid lm mixture measured minimum power constant values for friction factor supercial supercial core supercial liquid supercial gas total

1 N

e
i

(39)

Subscripts and Superscripts

E6

i1

e i E 4 2 N1

(40)

The performances of the new model and the Ansari et al. and Barnea transition models are compared. For these transition models, the Ansari et al. hydrodynamic model has been used. Table 1 reports the errors in predicting pressure drop calculations for those well cases in the TUFFP well data bank for which annular ow is predicted to occur in the entire wellbore for the tested transition model. Table 1 shows that the new model and the Barnea model give higher error values than the Ansari et al. model. The Ansari et al. model predicts that only 71 well cases have 100 percent annular ow in the wellbore, while the new model and the Barnea model predict 162 and 206 well cases, respectively, with 100 percent annular ow.

Conclusions
A new unied model for the annular ow transition is developed based on a critical void fraction mechanism. Available annular ow transition models and a new model are evaluated using the TUFFP well data bank for high pressures and Shohams ow pattern data for low pressures. Comparisons show that, for lowpressure and temperature ow systems, the new model gives the best results, while Ansari et al. model gives the best results for high pressure and temperature systems.

References
1 Turner, R. G., Hubbord, M. G., and Dukler, A. E., 1969, Analysis and Prediction of Minimum Flow Rate for the Continuous Removal of Liquids From Gas Wells, J. Pet. Technol., Nov., 1475-82, p. 246. 2 Ilobi, M. I., and Ikoku, C. U., 1981, Minimum Gas Flow Rate for Continuous Liquid Removal in Gas Wells Paper SPE 10170 presented at SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, TX, October 47. 3 Taitel, Y., Barnea, D., and Dukler, A. E., 1980, Modeling Flow Pattern Transitions for Steady State Upward Gas-Liquid Flow in Vertical Tubes, AIChE. J., 26, pp. 345354. 4 Taitel, Y., and Dukler, A. E., 1976, A Model For Prediction Flow Regime Transition in Horizontal and Near Horizontal Gas-Liquid Flow, AIChE. J., 22, pp. 4755. 5 Barnea, D., 1987, A Unied Model for Predicting Flow-Pattern Transition for the Whole Range of Pipe Inclinations, Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 13, pp. 112. 6 Ansari, A. M., Sylvester, N. D., Sarica, C., Shoham, O., and Brill, J. P., 1994, A Comprehensive Mechanistic Model for Upward Flow in Pipes, SPE Prod. Facil., Trans. AIME, 297, May, pp. 217226. 7 Barnea, D., Shoham, O., and Taitel, Y., 1982, Flow Pattern Transitions for Downward Inclined Two-Phase Flow; Horizontal to Vertical, Chem. Eng. Sci., 37, pp. 735740. 8 Lockhart, R. W., and Martinelli, R. C., 1949, Proposed Correlation of Data for Isothermal Two-Phase Two-Component Flow in Pipes, Chem. Eng. Prog., 45, Jan., No. 1, pp. 3948.

Acknowledgments
We thank the TUFFP member companies whose membership fees were used to fund part of this research project.

Nomenclature
A C D e E1 E2 cross-sectional area coefcient pipe diameter error function average percentage error absolute average percentage error

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9 Whalley, P. B., and Hewitt, G. F., 1978, The Correlation of Liquid Entrainment Fraction and Entrainment Rate in Annular Two-Phase Flow, UKAEA Report, AERE-R9187, Harwell. 10 Wallis, G. B., 1969, One-Dimensional Two-Phase Flow, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. 11 Chisholm, D., 1983, Two Phase Flow in Pipelines and Heater Changers, Charge Todwin, London, UK.

12 Jepson, W. P., and Taylor, R. E., 1993, Slug Flow and its Transition in Large-Diameter Horizontal Pipes, Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 19, pp. 411420. 13 Chen, X. T., 1994, A Model for Transition From Annular Flow, TUFFP ABM Slide Copy, September 2. 14 Shoham, O., 1982, Flow Pattern Transitions and Characterization in GasLiquid Two Phase Flow in Inclined Pipes, Ph.D. dissertation, Tel-Aviv Univ., Ramat-Aviv, Israel.

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