Experimental and Numerical Study on Gas-Liquid Flow in Hilly-Terrain Pipeline-Riser Systems

In offshore oil and gas transport, gas-liquid mixed transport is a basic flow phenomenon. In general, pipeline undulations are caused by seabed topography; therefore, it is of great significance to study the mechanisms underlying gas and liquid flows in hilly-terrain pipeline-riser systems. This study established a hilly-terrain pipeline-riser experimental system in an indoor laboratory. The flow pattern and its flow mechanism were studied via experimental observation and pressure detection. Experimental results showed that the gas-liquid flow pattern in the hilly-terrain pipeline-riser system can be divided into four types: severe slugging, dual-peak slug, oscillation flow, and stable flow, where dual-peak slug flow is a special flow pattern in this pipeline system. Hilly-terrain units obstruct the downstream gas transport, weaken the gas-liquid eruption in the riser, and increase the cycle of severe slugging. In this paper, gas is regarded as power in the flow of gas and liquid, and the accumulation of liquid in low-lying areas is regarded as an obstacle. Then, the moment of gas-liquid blowout is studied as main research object, and the mechanism of flow pattern transformation is described in detail. This study investigated the accuracy of the OLGA 7.0 simulation results for the gas-liquid two-phase flow in the hilly-terrain pipeline-riser. The results show that OLGA 7.0 achieves a more accurate calculation of severe slugging and stable flow and can predict both the pressure trend and change characteristics. However, the simulation accuracies for dual-peak slug flow and oscillation flow are poor, and the sensitivity to gas changes is insufficient.