Written with his colleagues M. Zaldivar and K. McLawhon, “Mitigation of Slugging Phenomena in Offshore Oil Export Lines” was presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Pipeline Simulation Interest Group in Deer Valley, Utah. The authors completed a thorough study to determine the simplest possible method for managing slugging in an oil export pipeline.
While maintaining some similarity in the physics to slug flow, slugging occurs when liquids inside a pipeline accumulate in areas such as dips and low=lying areas to form “slugs” which will then flow intermittently in an unstable manner. The paper detailed specific control valve positions to mitigate slugging while ensuring that the pressure at the pipeline’s inlet does not exceed a safe limit.