Abstract: A method to reduce slugging in a pipeline, including flowing a fluid flow through a pipeline having a fluid flow path extending therethrough and determining a presence of a slug within the fluid flow path of the pipeline. Launching a chokeable pig into the fluid flow path, anchoring the chokeable pig at a predetermined location within the fluid flow path, and adjusting the pressure drop through the pipeline.

Abstract: A very simple model has been presented which is able to reproduce slug flow from the instability of a flow with average hold-up and slip. The disclosure demonstrates that slug flow may be modeled as two different, stable solutions to the multiphase flow which coexist at different points in the line, moving with a celerity of UG. By using a white-noise inlet condition which preserves the average hold-up in the pipeline, a series of stable slug and stratified regions can be created without any need to resort to a Lagrangian slug tracking scheme. A quite good fit to field data was obtained with minimal effort by adjusting the slip relation. At present, the model merely demonstrates a potential, very attractive, flexible, and easy-to-implement alternative to Lagrangian slug tracking.