Three-phase oil-water-Gas horizontal co-current flow part II. Holdup measurement and prediction

Holdup data are presented for three-phase co-current oil-water-air in a horizontal 0.0259 m i.d. pipe. Detailed two-phase studies confirmed the validity of the experimental technique employed. A model is presented for the prediction of oil-air two-phase holdup. The three-phase holdup values were shown to be flow regime dependent and could be qualitatively explained on the basis of the fine structure of the liquid phases. A model is presented for the prediction of three-phase liquid holdup. This work extends the regime study by Spedding et al. (Trails. Inst. Chem. Eng, Part A, Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 2005, 83A: 401-411) to holdup measurement and prediction for three-phase flow. (C) 2007 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.