Hydrodynamics analysis of Taylor flow in oil and gas pipelines under constant heat flux

This is an incompressible numerical study of the hydrodynamics and heat transfer characteristics of Taylor flow in vertical oil and gas pipelines under constant heat flux using the Volume-of-fluid (VOF) method in ANSYS Fluent, covering a wide range of Re(0.22 ≤ Re ≤ 800) and Ca(0.0075 ≤ Ca ≤ 0.35). Nusselt number (Nu) correlations were used to examine the heat transfer characteristics based on a set of flow parameters. A comparison of the predictions of the void fraction, average velocity, pressure drop and the mean Nusselt number was made with available experimental observations, with most of the experimental data falling within 15.540% of the current study. The bubble increases in length with increasing capillary number and the wall of the tube at the confines of the gas phase leads to asymmetric and axisymmetric bubbles at low and high capillary numbers respectively. The transition region between the edge of the bubble and the film thickness increases with an equivalent increase in Ca and more evident at high Re. The study revealed that, Taylor flow plays a more significant role on the pressure drop increase and, provided the mechanisms and theoretical guidance for heat transfer characteristics in oil and gas pipelines.