Computational Tool For Horizontal Flow Simulation Using The Lockhart And Martinelli Correlation: Development And Comparison With Field Data

Oil and gas mixtures are the most common ones among the two-phase flows present in the petroleum industry and that, to a great extent, occur in horizontal pipelines. Therefore, several authors seek a better understanding of the characteristics of pressure profiles related to such flows. Among the various correlations developed, that of Lockhart and Martinelli, presented in 1949, is considered to be one of the first classical approaches to horizontal two-phase flow and, although more recent publications have shown new approaches, the considerable simplicity of this relationship maintains it as one of the main and more widely used. Later, with the introduction of personal computers in the 1980s, there was significant advance in such studies, especially with the development of simulators. Thus, the importance of computational aid for the calculations of pressure loss was evidenced as they involve a large amount of information and considerable complexity of the equations. However, such simulators still lack free and wide applications, which becomes a barrier in the constant search for a better understanding of horizontal two-phase flow. Therefore, the present work presents a computational tool for applying the Lockhart and Martinelli correlation, followed by the application of experimental data and their comparisons for the proposed tool.