A Practical Approach to Operational Hydrodynamic Slug Analysis in Pipelines

Hydrodynamic slugs in pipelines are usually analysed by using steady-state flow simulation software as a first approximation and then modelled in transient simulation software in order to get more accurate values. In this work, the ILF approach for hydrodynamic analysis is presented by using an empirical and a mechanistic method for steady-state simulations and by using a transient approach. For both, steady-state and transient simulations commercial software is applied. Furthermore, a new pseudo-transient approach as an alternative to the Lagrangian slug tracking scheme that is currently tested is presented. A set of operational hydrodynamic slug examples illustrates the use and accuracy of both commercial simulation programs and the newly developed pseudo-transient approach. Finally, a set of considerations for the hydrodynamic slug analysis in pipelines is proposed as a guide for accurate estimation of the slug properties.