(152b) CFD Modeling of Mixed Flow Regime for Gas-Liquid Flows in Vertical Pipe

Gas-liquid flows in the oil and gas industry often involve transient flow pattern such as slug flow, annular flow, and often a mixture of different flow regimes. Reliable prediction of phase distribution and pressure drop in these multiphase flows is crucial for flow assurance. There are multiple modelling challenges due to presence of more than one flow regime in the domain. A hybrid multiphase modelling approach is needed to capture both segregated and dispersed nature of two phases. Multi-fluid VOF model allows use of interface sharping algorithm in Eulerian Eulerian approach. Modeling framework with the ability to simulate the different flow regimes named Alegbraic Interfacial Area Density (AIAD) has been introduced by HZDR. In this work, we applied the AIAD model on a vertical pipe for different flow regime. Sensitivity with various modelling parameters such as RANS turbulence model, mesh refinement, time step size and bubble diameter, are investigated in this paper. Results of CFD predictions were compared with available experimental data.