Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 26 (2002) 635641

www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs

Inuence of bubble size on the transition from low-Re

bubbly ow to slug ow in a vertical pipe
S. Guet *, G. Ooms, R.V.A. Oliemans
Laboratory for Aero- and Hydrodynamics, J.M. Burgerscentrum, Delft University of Technology, Leeghwaterstraat 21, 2628 CA Delft, The Netherlands
Received 5 September 2001; accepted 25 October 2001

Abstract
An upward airwater bubbly ow in a pipe was studied experimentally, special attention being paid to the transition from bubbly
ow to slug ow. The pipe diameter was 72 mm and the height 18 m. The Reynolds number based on liquid ow was low-tomoderate (Usl < 0:2 m s
1), so that bubble break-up due to turbulence was nearly absent. Three dierent inlet devices were used,
which had a signicant inuence on the initial bubble size and initial bubble concentration distribution. The transition from bubbly
ow to slug ow was shown to be strongly dependent on the inlet conguration, particularly on the bubble size. A number of
theoretical models for the transition from bubbly ow to slug ow were reviewed. The Taitel et al. [2] approach was combined with a
bubble-size-dependent critical void-fraction expression of Song et al. [7]. This new formulation for the transition from bubbly ow
to slug ow was in good agreement with the measurements.

2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Bubbly to slug transition; Vertical pipe; Bubble size; Gas-lift technique

1. Introduction
Gasliquid ows are of great importance for many
industrial processes. A well-known example is the gaslift technique, that is for instance applied in the oil industry. In this technique an increase or a generation of
an upward liquid ow in a vertical pipe is achieved by
injecting gas at the bottom of the pipe. The range of
conditions for the liquid ow rate (before gas injection)
can be very wide, from conditions without a net liquid
ow to conditions with a fully developed turbulent ow.
In this paper the focus is on low-to-moderate pipe
Reynolds numbers based on the supercial liquid velocity, for which no bubble break-up because of turbulent eddies occurs. For such conditions there are only a
few experimental studies available in the literature (see,
for instance, Nakoriakov et al. [1]). When bubble breakup is absent, the initial bubble size can be expected to be
an important parameter. We expected at the start of our
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +31-70-311-3370; fax: +31-70-3113366.
E-mail addresses: sebastien.guet@shell.com, sebastien@klft.tn.tudelft.nl (S. Guet).

investigation, that also the initial bubble concentration

distribution had an impact on the performance of the
technique. Therefore in our waterair experiments three
dierent bubble inlet devices were used: with a symmetric and non-symmetric initial bubble concentration
distribution and with small and large initial bubbles.
The eect of the initial concentration distribution and
initial bubble size on the transition from low-Re bubbly
ow to slug ow was the main topic of our investigation.
It is known that the postponement of this transition has
a favorable inuence on the performance of the gas-lift
technique. The longer the ow remains in the low-Re
bubbly ow regime the higher the performance of the
technique is. It is also known that the pipe diameter has
a signicant inuence on the transition from bubbly to
slug ow. In our experiments the pipe diameter was 72
mm, a value realistic for many gas-lift applications. The
height of the pipe was 18 m. In this contribution (low-Re
and high-Re) bubbly ow and slug ow are rst characterized. Then some models for the transition between
bubbly ow and slug ow are reviewed. Finally the experimental results are presented and compared with a
bubble-size-dependent model for the transition from
bubbly ow to slug ow.

0894-1777/02/$ - see front matter
2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 8 9 4 - 1 7 7 7 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 7 2 - 3

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S. Guet et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 26 (2002) 635641

Nomenclature
Dp
Db
Dbv
db;max
g
Qg
Ql
Usg

pipe diameter, m
mean bubble size, m
mean bubble vertical chord length, m
maximum bubble size in nely dispersed ow
conditions, m
acceleration of gravity, m s
2
volumetric gas ow rate at atmospheric
pressure, m3 s
1
volumetric liquid ow rate, m3 s
1
supercial gas velocity at atmospheric pressure, m s
1

2. Bubbly ow and slug ow

2.1. Flow pattern characterization
Slug ows (Fig. 1) are characterized by large pockets
of gas, followed by large pockets of liquid. The bubble size is of the order of the pipe diameter, leading to
a large rise velocity of the gas phase. This ow regime
is therefore strongly non-stationary. A falling lm of
liquid can be observed near the wall. As mentioned
this ow pattern has a negative inuence on the
gas-lift technique.
Bubbly ows can be separated into two sub-regimes
(Taitel et al. [2], Chen et al. [3]):
 Low-Re bubbly ow, for which the liquid Reynolds number is low. Liquid turbulence is absent
or does not play an important role for the bubble
size determination. Therefore the inlet device, gas
ow rate and interfacial eects are determining
the bubble size.
 High-Re bubbly ow, also called nely dispersed
bubbly ow, for which the liquid Reynolds number is high. Assuming that break-up of bubbles occurs if the inertial forces due turbulent eddies are

supercial liquid velocity, m s
1

void fraction, dimensionless
critical void fraction at ow pattern transition, dimensionless
bubble aspect ratio, dimensionless
kinematic viscosity, m2 s
1
liquid density, kg m
3
gas density, kg m
3
surface tension, N m
1
pipe height, m

Usl

c
v
ml
ql
qg
r
h

stronger than the forces due to surface tension,

the resulting maximum bubble size can be expressed as a function of the turbulence energy dissipation, liquid viscosity and surface tension.
2.2. The transition from low-Re bubbly ow to high-Re
bubbly ow
As mentioned the formation of nely dispersed bubbly ow at high-Re conditions is due to the turbulent
forces in the liquid phase overcoming the gasliquid
interfacial tension (Chen et al. [3]). In such a situation
the gas phase is dispersed into small spherical bubbles
by the turbulent eddies. Assuming the turbulent forces
of the liquid phase acting on a bubble to be equal to the
forces due to surface tension, Chen et al. [3] proposed
the following expression for the maximum bubble diameter under nely dispersed bubbly ow conditions:


n
8rUsg
Dp Usl
db;max
;
1
ml
Cl ql Usl3
where r, ml and ql are the surface tension, kinematic
viscosity and liquid density respectively. Usl and Usg are
the liquid and gas supercial velocities, Dp is the pipe
diameter, Cl the friction factor, and n 0:2 a dimensionless parameter.
Equating the total turbulent kinetic energy of the
liquid phase to the total surface free energy of the dispersed phase, the boundary (in a Usg
Usl map) between
low-Re bubbly ow and high-Re bubbly ow is according to Chen et al. [3] given by
Usl
12:65
Usg


Fig. 1. Bubbly ow and slug ow.

ql
qg g
2
4Cl ql Usl
Dp
2



Dp Usl
ml

 n (

r
gql
qg D2p

!)12
;
2

S. Guet et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 26 (2002) 635641

637

alescence (or clustering of bubbles) to occur when the

bubbles are separated by a critical distance. With this
geometrical consideration, Taitel et al. [2] suggested
c 0:25. But other studies proposed c 0:3 (for example Mishima and Ishii [5]), while the maximum void
fraction considering packed spherical shaped particles in
a cubic lattice is c 0:52. In a body centered cubic
conguration, c 0:68. A generally accepted expression for the critical void fraction is still absent.
2.4. Inuence of the bubble size on the transition from
low-Re bubbly ow to slug ow
Fig. 2. Boundary between low-Re bubbly ow and high-Re bubbly ow
for an airwater system 72 mm diameter according to Chen et al. [3].

in which qg is the gas density and g the acceleration due

to gravity.
This boundary is shown in Fig. 2 for an airwater
ow in a 72 mm pipe. The parameter range for of our
low-Re experiments is also shown. The Re-number,
based on the supercial liquid velocity and the pipe diameter (Dp 72 mm), was <20,000 for all the experiments.

As mentioned by Liu [6] the bubble size depends on

the inlet device and on the injecting gas ow rate. Song
et al. [7] found a strong dependence of the transition
from low-Re bubbly to slug ow on the injected bubble
size when carrying out experiments in a narrow pipe (25
mm diameter). They proposed a new expression for the
critical void fraction, depending on the non-dimensional
bubble size Db =Dp , where Dp is the pipe diameter. This
expression, based on a linear interpolation of simultaneous measurements of bubble size and void fraction
at transition, is given by
c Db ; Dp 0:55
2:37

2.3. The transition from (low-Re and high-Re) bubbly

ow to slug ow: Taitel et al. [2] criterion (1980)
The transition from (low-Re and high-Re) bubbly
ow to slug ow occurs when the bubbles are clustering
or coalescing, leading to larger individual volumes of gas
and interfacial areas. Taitel et al. [2] assumed that the
transition from bubbly ow to slug ow occurs when the
gas velocity is equal to the rise velocity of large bubbles
moving with respect to the averaged liquid velocity.
Harmathy [4] proposed the following expression for this
rise velocity:


14
gql
qg r
Ugl 1:53
:
3
q2l
It should be stressed here, that the coecient of 1.53
in this expression assumes a spherical shape of the large
bubbles moving in an innite medium of water. The
assumption of Taitel et al. [2] leads to the following
relation between the supercial liquid velocity and supercial gas velocity at the transition from bubbly ow
to slug ow:
1


1
Ugl ;
4

in which the expression (3) is used for Ugl .
This transition relation only holds when the void
fraction  is equal to the critical value corresponding to
transition. The critical void fraction c for transition
from bubbly to slug ow was derived assuming the coUsl Usg

Db
:
Dp

We have used the Taitel et al. [2] criterion with the

Song et al. [7] expression for the critical void fraction for
the interpretation of our experiments on the transition
from low-Re bubbly ow to slug ow. The bubble size
was measured with four-point optical glass ber probes
for the three rather dierent bubble inlet devices used in
our experiments.
2.5. The inuence of the pipe diameter on the transition
from bubbly ow to slug ow
In practice the pipe diameter can vary signicantly,
depending on the application. In the nuclear industry
the diameter is usually small (typically 1025 mm);
however the diameter of a well bore in an oil eld can be
considerably larger. For small pipe diameters the initial
bubble diameter can easily be of the order of the pipe
diameter if special attention is not paid to the bubble
inlet geometry. In such cases break-up of large bubbles
due to turbulence is necessary for a ow with small
bubbles to develop. Low-Re bubbly ow is only possible
when the pipe diameter is above a certain critical value.
Taitel et al. [2] proposed the following expression for the
critical pipe diameter:
(

q2l gD2p
ql
qg r

!)14
> 4:36:

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S. Guet et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 26 (2002) 635641

For an airwater system at atmospheric pressure this

condition becomes: Dp > 52 mm. It is clear, that this
criterion cannot be generally valid. As long as the initial
bubble size is small compared to the pipe diameter
bubbly ow is possible at low liquid ow. The criterion
is, therefore, not universally accepted: Song et al. [7]
were able to create a bubbly ow (in the low-Re mode)
in a 25 mm tube by injecting the bubbles in a well
controlled way.
For very-large diameter pipes the ow pattern is still
rather uncertain. For instance Cheng et al. [8] studied
the ow pattern in a 150 mm diameter pipe, and found
no slug ow but a churn-like ow pattern for the conditions of slug ow in a smaller-diameter pipe. (It is not
clear whether this was due to the inlet conditions or
to the large diameter.) Ohnuki and Akimoto [9] also
mentioned the occurrence of churn-like structures in a
200 mm diameter pipe.
2.6. Aim of the present investigation
In the experimental investigation reported in this
publication an airwater ow through a vertical pipe
with a diameter of 72 mm was investigated, represented
in Fig. 3. The height of the pipe was 18 m; so the heightto-diameter ratio was very considerable. The supercial
liquid velocity had such values, that a turbulent bubbly
ow in the low liquid Re bubbly ow regime was
present in the pipe. The liquid ow generated by the gas

Fig. 3. Experimental set-up: upward bubbly pipe ow (right); downcomers for conditions of no net liquid ow without gas injection
(airlift) (middle) and net liquid ow without gas injection equiped
with a centrifugal pump (left).

injection was measured for three dierent inlet devices

while using the experimental set-up in the airlift conguration. More bubbly to slug ow transition points
were obtained by making use of a centrifugal pump.
Special attention was paid to the transition from low-Re
bubbly ow to slug ow and its dependence on the size
of the bubbles generated by the dierent inlet devices. A
model combining the Taitel et al. [2] approach given by
Eqs. (3) and (4) with the Song et al. [7] expression (5) for
c (and using the bubble size measured with four-point
optical ber probes) was compared with the experimental results obtained.

3. Experimental set-up
3.1. Description
The waterair test facility shown in Fig. 3 was used
for the experiments. The liquid ow rate was measured
with a magnetic ow meter. At low liquid ow rate
(Ql < 25 l mn
1 , i.e. Usl < 0:1 m s
1 ) a Rosemount
ow-tube 8732C magnetic ow meter was used and
for moderate liquid ow (25 l mn
1 < Ql < 100, i.e.
0:1 < Usl < 0:4 m s
1 ) a Endress Hauser Promag50
magnetic ow meter was used. The gas ow rate Qg
was measured with a gas mass ow meter Brooks
5861S, providing the gas volumetric ow rate at atmospheric pressure. Each one of those ow meter is
providing an accuracy of <0.5% for the conditions
studied here. The pressure was measured every two
meters along the pipe with pressure transducers ush
mounted to the wall. A remote operator controller
(ROC) was used with a PC 100 MHz for sending and
receiving information from the set-up. The ROC is also
able to control the gas mass ow rate by making use of
an active valve situated upstream from the gas mass
ow meter.
The bubble size and shape were rst determined from
photos. For the optical measurements it was essential to
reduce light reections. Therefore the well-known technique of applying a square box around the pipe was
used. In order to get more precision, four-point optical
glass ber probes were used (more details are given in
Section 3.3).
The radial distribution of void fraction was measured
with single optical ber probes at three locations
downstream from the inlet: h=Dp 55; 110; 166. A
strong dependence of the prole on the existing bubble
size was found (for given ow conditions), from a wall
peaking radial void-fraction prole for small bubbles to
core peaking prole for large bubbles. The transition to
slug ow was always preceded by a core peaking voidfraction prole. A more detailed description of the
probes and void-fraction proles obtained can be found
in Van Geest [10].

S. Guet et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 26 (2002) 635641

639

3.2. Gas inlets

In order to evaluate the inuence of the initial bubble
size and initial bubble concentration distribution three
dierent inlet devices were tested (see Fig. 4): (1) a porous ring generating small bubbles with a diameter between 1 and 8 mm, (2) a vertical porous strip attached to
the pipe wall also generating small bubbles with a diameter between 1 and 10 mm, and nally (3) two large
nozzles of 3 mm diameter attached to the pipe wall
generating large bubbles with a diameter between 5 and
20 mm. To achieve approximately the same bubble size
from the inlets (1) and (2), the same porous material was
used (Mott metallurgical corporation, thickness 3 mm).
The averaged pore diameter was 10 lm and the area
1000 mm2 for the two porous medium inlets. The bubble
size was increasing with the injected gas ow. More
details about the dependence of bubble size on the gas
ow rate will be presented in Section 4.1.
3.3. Four-point optical glass ber probe
Four-point optical glass ber probes were used to
measure the vertical velocity and the vertical chord
length of the bubbles. Because the refractive index of air
is much lower than that of glass of the probe, a large
part of the light is reected in air. Contrary to air, tap
water has nearly the same refractive index as the glass of
the probe, therefore the light can escape from the ber
boundary. So when an optical ber probe is placed in a
bubbly ow (and after converting the light amplitude
into an electrical signal with an analog to digital converter), a dierence of voltage amplitude output can be
observed, corresponding to whether the ber surface is
in contact with air or water.
The measurement of local quantities like the vertical
chord length and the vertical velocity of the bubbles is
feasible by using a four-point optical glass ber probe,
as shown in Fig. 5. The vertical velocity can be determined from the distance separating the central tip (1)
from the plane (2), (3) and (4) and the time of ight for
each bubble. The vertical chord length can then be calculated from the vertical velocity and the time spent by
the central tip (1) in the bubble. Of course the tips (2)

Fig. 4. Top view of the three inlets and side view of inlet (2).

Fig. 5. Perspective view of the four-point probe used, and associated

signal from the analog to digital converter when a bubble is rising
perfectly along the axis of the central tip (1).

(4) will never pierce the bubble exactly at the same time.
Therefore the mean time of ight was used. A selection
criterion based on the deviation of each of the three
times of ight from the mean was implemented. In that
way only the bubbles that were rising along the axis of
the central tip (1) could be selected. For more details
about the selection criterion and accuracy of the fourpoint optical glass ber probe, the reader is referred to
Mudde and Saito [11].

4. Results
4.1. Bubble size evaluation
In order to characterize the three inlet devices the
mean vertical chord length of the bubbles was measured
for each inlet device at h 5 m (i.e h=Dp 70) and at
the pipe centerline. Averaging was carried out over at
least 100 bubbles, which corresponds to a minimum of 5
min of measurement. In order to compare the inlets, the
ow conditions were the same for all three inlets. The
liquid ow was kept constant by making use of a pump
and a valve, and the gas ow was increased from 1 to 9
cm s
1. The results are presented in Fig. 6.
As can be seen from Fig. 6 the mean vertical chord
length resulting from the porous inlets (1) and (2) is
approximately equal, with a typical value of 25 mm.
Only at high supercial gas velocity the mean bubble
size resulting from the non-symmetric porous medium
(2) is slightly larger than the mean bubble size resulting
from the symmetric porous medium. This is certainly
due to some coalescence very near to the non-symmetric
porous inlet (2).
In contrast to the porous medium inlets, the large
nozzle inlet (3) is creating much larger bubbles. As can
be seen the mean vertical chord length is in that case
nearly 10 mm. A closer look at the data showed that the
bubble size spectra was much wider when using the large

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S. Guet et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 26 (2002) 635641

Fig. 6. Mean bubble vertical chord length using the three dierent
bubble inlets at Usl 8:2 cm s
1 measured at h=Dp 70 and at the
pipe centerline.

nozzle inlet than the porous medium inlets, suggesting

the presence of Taylor-shaped bubbles.
4.2. Experimental results for the airlift case
First the experimental results for the airlift conditions
are presented. In Fig. 7 the measured supercial liquid
velocity generated for this case by the injected gas ow is
shown in a Usg
Usl plot, where the supercial gas
velocity is given at atmospheric pressure. The observed
transition points from low-Re bubbly ow to slug ow
coincide with the inection points on the curves for the
porous inlets (1) and (2). For the large nozzle inlet, the
transition is observed to occur at much lower gas and
liquid ow rates. In that case there is no inection point
as the transition is more gradual (this inlet creates large
Taylor-bubbles).
The transition from bubbly ow to slug ow occurs
at dierent ow conditions for the three inlet devices.
The Taitel et al. [2] criterion for this transition (with
c 0:25) is also plotted in the gure (bubbly ow occurs on the left-hand side of the curve; slug ow on the

right-hand side). As can be seen from Fig. 7 the liquid

ow rate generated by the injected gas ow and also the
transition from low-Re bubbly ow to slug ow are
strongly aected by the dierence of inlet conditions. A
signicant dierence between the porous-material inlet
devices (small bubbles) and the large nozzle inlet device
(large bubbles) can be observed, even when both types
of inlets are in the bubbly ow regime (i.e. for the rst
three points on the left of the curve). The small bubbles
are more ecient in generating a liquid ow and also in
postponing the transition from bubbly ow to slug ow.
The dierence in the location of the transition between
the porous-ring inlet (1) and the porous-strip inlet (2) is
probably due to some bubble coalescence close to the
porous-strip inlet resulting in larger bubbles and in a
wider distribution of bubble size when increasing the
void fraction.
4.3. Experimental results for the case: nite liquid ow
without gas injection
A centrifugal pump was installed on the experimental
set-up, as shown in Fig. 3. This made it possible to
measure more bubbly ow to slug ow transition points,
and to compare the measured transition points with
model predictions. At low liquid ow condition, the
pressure signal collected for bubbly ow conditions is
stationary. When slug ow occurs, the signal becomes
non-stationary. Therefore the transition points were
located by making use of the pressure signal uctuations, conrmed by visual observation. The transition
was rst observed at the top of the vertical pipe. As
expected the transition points are strongly dependent on
the inlet devices, because of their dierence in bubble
size and in coalescence properties. In Fig. 8 all the
measured transition points obtained with the inlets (1)
and (3) are presented and compared with model predictions. As mentioned this model involves the use of the
relation of Song et al. [7] for the critical void fraction in
the Taitel et al. [2] criterion (combined with the Harmathy [4] expression).
The mean bubble size Db of the ellipsoidal bubbles
(generated by the porous bubble inlets), needed for the
critical void-fraction calculation, could be evaluated
from the measurements of the vertical chord length Dbv
and an estimate of the bubble aspect ratio v:
2

Db Dbv v3 :

Fig. 7. Liquid ow as a function of the injected gas ow for the airlift

case and using the three dierent inlets. The Taitel et al. [2] criterion
is also shown.

For the annular porous inlet (1) the vertical chord

length was measured to be 3.6 mm near the transition
(Fig. 6). By making use of photos, the aspect ratio was
estimated to be v 2:5, which leads to Db 7 mm.
When this value is inserted in the theoretical model, the
calculated transition points are in good agreement with
the measured transition points. The corresponding mean
void fraction in the pipe was 0.3, which corresponds well

S. Guet et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 26 (2002) 635641

641

It has also been shown that the transition from

bubbly ow to slug ow as a function of the injected
bubble size can reliably be predicted by the Taitel et al.
[2] criterion, combined with the critical void-fraction
relation of Song et al. [7]. When for a practical application the size of the injected bubbles is known, the
critical void fraction (for the transition from bubbly
ow to slug ow) can be calculated with the critical
void-fraction relation of Song et al. [7]. The Taitel et al.
[2] criterion can then be used to calculate the optimal
inuence of the injected gas ow rate on the liquid ow
rate.
References
Fig. 8. Transition points for the three inlets. Usg is given at atmospheric
pressure.

with c (Db 7 mm, Dp 72 mm) from the correlation

proposed by Song et al. [7]. The agreement is also good
for the transition points corresponding to the large
nozzle inlet when considering a mean bubble size of 13
mm. The corresponding void fraction was 0.09, which
again is in agreement with model prediction.

5. Conclusion
It has been shown experimentally, that the eciency
of the gas-lift technique at low liquid ow conditions is
very dependent on the inlet device used for injecting the
gas. When small bubbles are generated during gas injection, the transition from bubbly ow to slug ow
occurs at higher values of the void fraction than for
large bubbles. Large values of the void fraction under
bubbly ow conditions lead to large values of the liquid
ow. This is not the case when large bubbles are generated during injection, as large bubbles would lead to
slug-ow conditions already at low values of the void
fraction. In addition it is known that slug ow has a very
detrimental eect on the eciency of the gas-lift technique.

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