Análise experimental do gradiente de pressão de um escoamento bifásico horizontal ar-água em tubos corrugados

Abstract

Corrugated pipes have periodic cavities on inner wall that provide piping flexibility and dynamic changes in the flow. Oil and gas offshore production lines consist of corrugated pipes and the most observed flow pattern in these lines is slug flow. The pressure drop is an important project requirement for facilities design, safe operations and must be predicted quickly and reliably. Some studies proposed correlations to predict the pressure drop for slug flow in smooth pipes. However, limited research has evaluated the slug flow pressure drop in corrugated pipes. This work carried out an experimental analysis of horizontal air-water slug flow pressure drop in three different inner diameters (26, 40 and 50 mm ID) with three distinct cavities width (1.2, 1.6 and 2 mm). The effects of inner diameter and cavity width on slug flow pressure drop were analyzed. The results demonstrated that the increase of the cavities width in corrugated pipe increases the pressure drop. The experimental data were fitted and a pressure drop multiplier correlation was proposed. Comparison between predictions and experimental data showed 10% accuracy.