Severe Slugging With Viscous Liquids: Experiments and Simulations

Improving flow simulators for multiphase flow with viscous oils is of concern for the oil industry as the available database for model validation is quite limited for the case of highly viscous oils. Severe slugging is a particular flow phenomenon where the quality of dynamic simulators is important. Two experimental series on severe slugging have been made in a S-shaped riser geometry (50mm inner diameter, 14 m length and 6.5 m height), one using viscous oil and the other using water as a reference. The experimental results are time recordings, amplitudes of pressure oscillations at riser base and slugging frequencies.

The experimental results are compared with simulations with a multiphase flow simulator.