Large-scale experiments examine slug-length evolution in long pipes

The a set complete of two- paper and three-phase presents slug-flow experiments conducted in a 766-m-long, 8-in. pipe at 45-bara pressure. The results show that the mean slug length initially increases with the distance from the inlet but that this increase slows and the mean slug length typically reaches a value between 20 and 50 diameters at the outlet. At low flow rates, slug-length distributions tend to be extremely wide. At higher flow rates, slug-length distributions are generally narrower. The experiments demonstrated that slug flow often requires a long distance to develop. Copyright 2020 Offshore Technology Conference.