A Physical Model for Predicting the Pressure Drop of Gas-Liquid Slug Flow in Horizontal Pipes

A comprehensive treatment of all sources of pressure drop within intermittent gas-liquid flow is presented. A slug unit is divided into three parts and the pressure gradient of each part is calculated separately. In the mixing zone the momentum theory is employed and the mixing process between the film and slug is simulated by a two-dimensional wall jet entering a large reservoir to calculate the mixing length. The boundary layer theory is utilized to calculate the pressure drop for the slug body and the momentum equation of the film zone is integrated to calculate the pressure drop for the film zone. The pressure drop predicted in present model is in good agreement with all the measurements.