Mechanistic Modeling of the Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient in Gas-Liquid Intermittent Flows

Abstract

The development of a mechanistic procedure to estimate the convection heat transfer in horizontal gas-liquid intermittent—or slug—flow is presented. In broad terms, the mean convective heat transfer coefficient is calculated following an averaging procedure based on the unit cell model of the slug flow pattern. The flow parameters (i.e., unit cell frequency, liquid slug and elongated bubble length and velocity, and liquid hold-up) were obtained from empirical data for air/water flows in a 15 m-long, 25.4 mm ID copper pipe and for natural gas (mostly methane and ethane) and oil or water flows in an actual size, 200 m-long, 150 mm ID steel pipe. A time-averaging procedure based on the unit cell parameters was then used to calculate the mean convective heat transfer coefficient. The slug flow parameters taken on the small scale air/water loop and the actual size pipeline were used for comparisons. Heat transfer data from the small scale air/water loop were used to validate the results calculated using the averaging procedure. Finally, the approach herein proposed also showed good agreement with previously published data and well-known correlations.