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Xodus Group

Technical Paper

Improving boundary conditions for multiphase CFD predictions of


slug flow induced forces
Paul Emmerson, Mike Lewis and Neil Barton from Xodus Group

June 2015

Abstract constructed then predictions of the fluid forces (typically referred to


Flow induced vibration (FIV) can go undetected in subsea pipework, as the forcing function) are required.
potentially leading to fatigue failures. Although FIV screening
methods have been developed, these tend to be conservative for The magnitude and frequencies of forces generated by the flow of
multiphase pipe flows and are typically only validated for simple liquids, gases and multiphase mixtures are not well understood.
single bends. This paper investigates the usage of Computational Some basic rules of thumb have been developed for the purposes
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to predict realistic forcing functions that could of preliminary screening of new pipework designs, for example,
be used to analyse stress and fatigue in complex combinations of those given in the Energy Institute Guidelines on Guidelines for the
bends and tees, typically seen in subsea flow-lines, manifolds and avoidance of vibration induced fatigue failure in process pipework
jumpers. (2). As part of the development of a new Energy Institute guidance
document for subsea pipework it was highlighted that further work
When simulating multiphase flow through a complicated pipe was required to establish improved techniques for estimating forcing
configuration it is important to define the slug length and velocity at functions in liquid-gas, flows. Subsequently a Joint Industry Project
the inlet to correctly predict force magnitudes and frequencies. A (JIP) funded by Aker Solutions, BP, FMC, Lundin, Shell, Statoil,
novel approach is presented which uses a quasi-three-dimensional Suncor and Total was established by Xodus Group in collaboration
(Q3D) CFD method to obtain horizontal slug flow inlet boundary with TNO to address this issue.
conditions for subsequent force prediction. The results of this
approach are compared with physical tests of slug flow through a Phase I of the JIP includes flow loop tests in which forces generated
single bend and predictions based on more established slug flow by water-air flow through a 6 inch bend at atmospheric conditions,
correlations. over a range of flow regimes were measured. This will establish
whether the results of small-scale tests (3,4,5,6) are applicable to
The Q3D CFD method produced slug flow inlet boundary conditions larger pipework and help in the development of methods in which
that matched correlations and test data well. The conclusion is that laboratory measurements are extrapolated to assess vibration in the
Q3D CFD provides improved horizontal slug flow inlet boundary field.
conditions compared to simplistic approaches such as defining time
varying square waves based on correlations. The forcing frequencies Work is also progressing to assess the ability of CFD to predict
predicted using the Q3D CFD approach showed an improved multiphase forcing functions. CFD offers a number of potential
distribution compared to a boundary condition based on correlation, advantages over the extrapolation approach if suitably validated:
and the magnitudes of the forces on the pipe bend compared well It could predict flow behaviour in complex pipework installations
with published test data. such as jumpers and manifolds for which there may be no
experimental information
It could predict forces in high-pressure conditions that would be
1.0 Introduction difficult and expensive to replicate experimentally
It is well-established that the flow of fluids through process pipework Local, time varying forces can be exported directly to FEA software
generates fluctuating forces caused by turbulence, cavitation, or full fluid-structural interaction simulations can be performed in
flashing, multiphase and acoustic effects. Under certain conditions, which the movement of the pipework affects the fluid flow and vice
these forces can be sufficient to cause catastrophic fatigue failures. versa
In the North Sea vibration and fatigue account for 21% of all
pipework failures (1). CFD is now being used by Xodus and others to model FIV in
surface and subsea pipework and comparison with a limited
When a system is operational and accessible then these issues are number of field vibration measurements suggests that it provides
typically assessed by a combination of field vibration measurements realistic predictions. One of the aims of the JIP is to improve the
and finite element stress analysis. However, if the pipework is understanding of the accuracy of CFD FIV analysis by validating it
inaccessible (e.g. subsea), its duty is to be changed or it is yet to be against high-quality, well-controlled laboratory measurements.4

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This will indicate when the use of CFD is most beneficial. element analysis (FEA) to perform FIV assessments of a subsea
jumper and a subsea manifold in wet gas flow. The VOF method
In initial work, CFD predictions were compared with previously was used with the large eddy simulation (LES) turbulence model. No
published test data and good predictions were seen for a range of direct comparison with laboratory test was presented, although, in
vertical and horizontal flow regimes. This work showed that accurate discussion, Pontaza stated that reasonable agreement between CFD
definition of inlet boundary conditions is a pre-requisite to realistic and field measurements was achieved.
prediction of the forcing function. This is particularly true in the slug
flow regime when the inlet flow velocity and liquid depth will fluctuate TNO performed CFD analysis (13) on a 4 inch experimental test loop
over time. which will be discussed in section 3. An inlet hold-up which varied
with time in the form of a square wave was used. The square wave
This paper presents a novel and effective approach that has been represented the slugs in a simplified way, with the frequency, slug
developed to model horizontal hydrodynamic slug flow to define length and slug velocity based on a correlations. This method was
inlet boundary conditions for CFD calculations to predict fluid forces able to reasonably provide the main forcing frequency and force
on pipe bends. The work described uses STAR-CCM+ 9.04 CFD fluctuation. However, it is wholly dependent on the correlations from
software (7) but in principle could be implemented in most general- which the inlet condition is derived and the results are obtained as a
purpose CFD codes. direct consequence of the inlet conditions and assumed variability in
slug characteristics.
It should also be noted that, although the focus of the current paper
is on flow-induced vibration, the method could also be used in a 3.0 Comparison of Test Results with CFD using Correlation
variety of other types of CFD study e.g. slug catcher sizing, erosion Based Boundary Conditions
prediction, slugging inception studies, surge control assessment, This section gives a brief overview of the TNO water-air flow loop test
separator design and multiphase meter development. set up and work which replicated their original CFD simulations (13).
Subsequent sections describe the development and validation of the
2.0 Previous Work new improved Q3D CFD approach of providing boundary conditions
In principle, CFD simulation of liquid and gas flows in pipes has for slugging flow.
been possible since the 1980s. However, the computing power
required to model a typical subsea installation (e.g. a manifold) has 3.1 Overview of TNO 4" Tests
been prohibitively expensive until relatively recently. Consequently, The TNO air-water flow loop is shown in Figure 1. A mixture of water
relatively little has been published comparing CFD predictions of FIV and air, at atmospheric conditions, were flowed through a long,
with flow loop tests. straight 4" plastic pipe section and then through a 180 degree bend
(formed by two 90 degree 1D bends). The horizontal forces caused
Yamano et al (8) used CFD to simulate (single phase) water flow by the flow passing round the 180 degree bend were measured using
through a 410 mm ID, 1D bend. Good predictions were obtained for two loads cells attached to the upstream 90 degree bend. The test
the frequency of dynamic pressure measurements taken immediately section pipework was not held rigidly, so it is possible that the flow
downstream of the bend, although the predicted fluctuation was behaviour was affected by pipe vibration and vice versa.
lower than the measured value.
A range of multiphase flow regimes were generated during the tests.
Sanchis and Jakobsen (9) found similar results when comparing In this paper a slug flow case is considered.4
with the same test. A comparison of single- and multi-phase URANS
CFD analysis was performed. In terms of resolving the flow induced
pressure loading on the pipe walls it was found that for single-phase
flow, the two-equation SST turbulence model was able to correctly
predict the frequency and location of the pressure fluctuations but
not their amplitude nor the associated large-scale unsteady flow
features. It was shown that for multiphase flow the liquid and gas
could not be treated as a homogeneous mixture. The separation of
the liquid and gas due to centrifugal forces travelling around the bend
was important when predicting the magnitude and frequency of the
forces on the pipe walls.

Hernandez-Perez (10) showed that slug generation can be accurately


predicted in horizontal and inclined straight pipes using the volume
of fluid (VOF) method to represent liquid and gas phases. Sharaf (11)
also demonstrated reasonable agreement for vertical pipe flow.

Pontaza et al (12) used CFD in conjunction with (uncoupled) finite Figure 1: TNO 4" flow loop.

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3.2 Preliminary CFD Simulations of the TNO 4" Tests Figure 3 and Figure 4 compare the CFD predictions and the test
Figure 2 shows the setup of the initial CFD simulations, which measurements for a slug flow case in which the liquid and gas
replicated the original TNO work. The main simulation parameters superficial velocities were 2.4 m/s and 2.2 m/s respectively. There
were as follows: is a reasonable match between the magnitudes of force acting on
Simulations were performed using STAR-CCM+ CFD software (7). the bends. However, in reality slug sizes vary and the initial CFD
Note: ANSYS Fluent was used in the original TNO work. boundary conditions did not account for this (as noted in the original
The computational domain comprised the 180 degree bend with TNO paper). Hence the predicted Power Spectral Density (PSD) plot
short straight pipe sections upstream and downstream. takes the form of a series of individual frequency harmonic peaks
The Volume of Fluid (VOF) model was used with water and air rather than the distribution that was measured.4
represented as separate phases. STAR-CMM+ has a surface
sharpening algorithm. In this case the sharpening factor was set to
0.6.
The air was modelled as an ideal gas with a molecular weight
of 28.97 kg/kmol and a viscosity of 1.855e-5 Pa.s. Although
the pressure gradient in the system is insignificant and the flow
velocity is not high, gas can accumulate in the system. This is
particularly important for slugging flows, where gas compresses
behind the slug and expands as the slug accelerates. Ignoring the
gas compressibility would result in slugs not achieving their peak
velocity.
The liquid phase was water with a constant density of 1000 kg/m3
and a viscosity of 0.001Pa.s. The water/air surface tension was set
to 0.074 N/m.

Turbulence effects were modelled using the Large Eddy Simulations


(LES) approach for the 3D domain. It was found that the realizable
k-epsilon model, as implemented in STAR-CCM+, increases the
turbulence generation at the interface between the phases which
smears the interface, damping out wave initiation. No increased
turbulence generation was observed when using the LES scheme. Figure 3: Comparison of predicted and measured Forces (Fy) and Power
The turbulence effects on the force fluctuations are thought to be Spectral Density Plots comparing initial slug flow CFD (red) predictions
of secondary importance compared to the multiphase effects, and with TNO tests (black).
although the mesh is not resolved to the expected level for a LES,
the compromise appears to provide acceptable results. A mesh
sensitivity study has not been performed on the cases described
here, but extensive experience gained with similar cases has been
applied.

Figure 2: Setup of preliminary CFD simulation.

The slug flow at the CFD model inlet was mimicked by setting a
varying liquid height such that the holdup regularly stepped between
38 and 100%. The frequency of the oscillation was defined using the
Fetter equation (14). The inlet velocity was set as the homogeneous Figure 4: Comparison of predicted and measured Forces (Fx) and Power
mixture velocity and the slug length was defined to ensure that the Spectral Density Plots comparing initial slug flow CFD (red) predictions
total liquid and gas rates matched the test condition. with TNO tests (black).

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4.0 Quasi Three Dimensional CFD Methodology CFD and 3D domains consisted of 820,536 cells, which took 108
The Quasi Three-Dimensional (Q3D CFD) approach has been minutes of computational time on 20 cores to complete 1 second
developed here in STAR-CCM+, and in principle the method can of simulated time. When the previous model was converted into a
be applied in any general-purpose CFD code, and is similar to that fully 3D setup using the 3D cross-sectional mesh for the Q3D CFD
used in the Ledaflow software (15). The approach entails adding part (and same numerical settings) it consisted of 7,105,536 cells,
an extra section of straight, horizontal pipe onto the inlet of the 3D taking 1167 minutes on the same 20 cores to complete 1 second of
bend model. This Q3D CFD pipe section is treated like any other simulated time. Therefore the combined Q3D CFD and 3D approach,
part of the CFD domain - momentum, VOF and k-epsilon equations as tested here, was over ten times faster than a fully 3D setup.
are solved using the standard STAR-CCM+ implicit transient solver.
The inlet to the Q3D CFD section is defined as being stratified with a The Q3D CFD model would be expected to perform well in horizontal
constant inlet velocity. Slug flow spontaneously develops within the stratified and hydrodynamic slug flows where the large scale
Q3D CFD section and the resulting fluctuating flow at the Q3D CFD interface is dominantly horizontal at a given streamwise position. The
outlet is used to define the inlet conditions for the 3D bend section. applicability of the Q3D CFD approximation to high inclination and
The Q3D CFD section differs from the standard CFD domain in only vertical flows has not been validated.
two ways. Firstly, the mesh in the Q3D CFD section is split vertically
into a number of horizontal cells (26 in this case); each horizontal 5.0 Comparison with TNO 4" Experimental Results
cell extends across the width of the pipe (Figure 4). Secondly a
modification to C is necessary to obtain the correct pressure drop 5.1 Setup
along the pipe. A description of the TNO 4" experiment was given in section 3.1.
Figure 6 shows the computational mesh used for the combined Q3D
The advantage of this approach is that it is highly computationally CFD and 3D simulation to calculate the forces on the 180 degree
efficient compared to using a fine three-dimensional mesh in a long bend. The 3D mesh had a streamwise spacing of 7.5mm, 756 cells in
section pipe section. It provides realistic slugging conditions without the cross-sectional and a near wall spacing of 0.5mm. The total mesh
the requirement to resort to empirical correlations such as Fetter count was 499,000 cells for the 3D domain. The flow parameters at
(14), whose applicability is likely be limited to specific pipe sizes, the 3D inlet were interpolated from the Q3D CFD outlet at each time
atmospheric conditions and perfectly horizontal pipes. The approach step.
also eliminates the requirement to assume a variability in the slug
length over time.

Simulation parameters were essentially identical to those described


for the initial simulations in section 3.2 except that an additional 25
m straight (Q3D CFD) section was defined upstream of the bend. The
liquid height and flow velocity at the inlet was fixed and unchanging
with time and slug flow was spontaneously generated in the Q3D
CFD section before entering the bend.

Figure 6: Computational mesh for TNO 4" medium gas slug flow case.

5.2 Slug prediction


A snapshot of the predicted slug flow using the Q3D CFD approach
Figure 5: Q3D CFD Setup (streamwise mesh left, cross-sectional mesh
is shown in Figure 7. Typical slug features can be seen, such as
centre, stratified inlet right).
the rolling over of the nose, drawing up liquid in front of it and the
smooth tail at the rear. The variation of liquid hold-up with time is
The time step used was 0.5 ms; this was chosen as a balance plotted in Figure 8, which shows the irregular front and sharp rear
between computational time and limiting the target Courant number of the slugs. The minimum and maximum liquid hold-up values
below 1.0. Reducing the time step below this did not appear to give are reasonably consistent (~0.2 0.9) with time as the slugs move
any significant improvement in the predictions. through, but the time period, length and shape of the slugs varies.
Table 1 compares predicted slug characteristics with those based
In principle, slug flow conditions would develop in any pipe section on correlations; Fetter (14) used for frequency and Oliemans (16)
if a sufficiently fine mesh was used. However, in practice this would for velocity and length. Liquid hold-up was not measured in the
result in excessive run times unless very expensive computing experiment. The slug frequency was calculated by performing a
facilities were available. The Q3D CFD method can save considerably Power Spectral Density analysis on the hold-up time history (Figure
on computational time compared with using a fully 3D setup. For 9), and taking the dominant frequency. Slug velocity was calculated
example for the Tay case described in section 6, the combined Q3D from the time taken for the tail of the slug to pass through4

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two positions one metre apart and was averaged over five slugs. The 10 for the slug flow case. Table 2 summarises the measured and
average slug length was calculated from the time taken for the nose predicted Root Mean Squared (RMS) forces on the bend. Two CFD
and tail (of five slugs) to pass a given point (at a level of ~0.6 hold-up) force predictions are given; one in which the force is calculated
multiplied by the slug velocity. The comparison for the Q3D CFD slug based on the upstream 90 degree bend only, and the other in which
characteristics with the correlations are very good, especially given forces acting on the whole 180 degree bend are considered. It is
that no information about the type of flow regime or details other than unclear which of these assumptions is the most representative of the
the superficial velocities is required. test measurement.

As expected the calculated parallel, (Fy) RMS force approximately


doubles when the whole of the U-bend is considered and this
compares well to the measured value. However, the predicted
transverse (Fx) RMS force is significantly lower when considering the
180 degree bend because forces in the upstream 90 degree bend
Figure 7: Predicted slug flow using Q3D CFD for TNO 4" medium gas slug
oppose forces in the downstream bend.
flow case (pipe height scaled x 4).

Figure 8: Liquid hold up predicted by Q3D CFD for TNO 4" medium gas
slug flow case.

Figure 10: Liquid volume fraction near walls and through vertical mid-
section for TNO 4" medium gas slug flow case.

Table 2: RMS forces on the TNO 4" bends for slug flow case (Fx & Fy as
defined in Figure 10).
RMS Parallel RMS Transverse
Force, Fy [N] Force, Fx [N]
Test measurement 131.1 59.4
CFD 90deg Instrumented Bend 70.0 66.3
CFD whole of U bend 137.3 22.0

Figure 11 and Figure 12 compare the measured and predicted force
Figure 9: Power Spectral Density plot of Liquid hold up predicted by Q3D
fluctuations in the parallel and transverse flow directions. Again
CFD for TNO 4" medium gas slug flow case.
predicted forces are given for both 90 and 180 degree bends. When
considering the whole 180 degree bend the peak-to-peak parallel
Table 1: Comparison of slug characteristics for TNO 4" medium slug
(Fy) forces match well. The shape of the PSD plot compares well with
flow case.
the test data, having a similar range and dominant frequency. The
Correlation Q3D CFD
predicted transverse (Fx) forces magnitudes and frequency ranges
Slug Frequency (Hz) 1.25 1.28
also match well with the test data.
Slug Velocity (m/s) 5.4 5.5
Slug Length (m) 1.8 1.81
The CFD simulations assumed a rigid pipe, whereas in reality
the unsupported pipework flexed significantly as each slug
5.3 Force Prediction
passed through. This is believed to explain why some vibration
Predicted contours of liquid volume fraction near the walls and
was measured above 10 Hz in the tests but was not seen in the
through a vertical mid-plane along the pipe are shown in Figure
simulations.4

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Figure 11: Measured (top) and predicted (bottom) parallel forces, Fy for the TNO 4" medium gas slug flow case.

Figure 12: Measured (top) and predicted (bottom) transverse forces, Fx for the TNO 4" medium gas slug flow case.

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6.0 Comparison with Tay and Thorpe Experimental Results validation case with different pipe diameter, inlet hold-up and
superficial velocities to the first TNO 4" case.
6.1 Setup
Tay and Thorpe (17) described their experimental setup which
measured the liquid heights of slug flow and the forces they generate
on a horizontal 90 degree 1.5 R/D bend with an internal diameter of
70 mm with superficial velocities up to 3.89 m/s. Air and water at
atmospheric pressures were mixed and slug flow allowed to develop
Figure 14: Predicted slug flow using Q3D CFD for the Tay and Thorpe
through a 9 m horizontal run. A bend was connected to the 9 m run
case, jL = 0.5 m/s, jG = 1.8 m/s (pipe height scaled x 8).
and a downstream horizontal pipe section via two sets of bellows,
which were designed to minimise structural transmission to and
from the bend. A slug flow case with a superficial gas velocity (jG) of
1.8 m/s and a superficial liquid velocity (jL) of 0.5 m/s is compared
with a like-for-like Q3D CFD simulation. The computational mesh
used is shown in Figure 13, comprising of a 3D mesh with 7.5 mm
streamwise spacing, 864 cells in the cross-sectional and 0.5 mm
near wall spacing. The total mesh count was 625,500 cells for the 3D
domain. The computational time for the Q3D CFD part accounted for
about 30% of the total time.

Figure 13: Computational mesh for the Tay and Thorpe slug flow case
(jL=0.5 m/s; jG=1.8 m/s).
Figure 15: Measured liquid height (top), Q3D CFD predicted liquid hold-up
6.2 Slug prediction (middle) and PSD (bottom) for Tay and Thorpe case (jL=0.5 m/s; jG=1.8
A snapshot of the predicted slug flow using the Q3D CFD approach m/s).
is shown in Figure 14. Again the slug features and different stages of
development can be seen. The variation of liquid hold up with time is Table 3: Comparison of slug characteristics for Tay and Thorpe case
plotted in Figure 15 again showing the irregular front and sharp rear (jL=0.5 m/s; jG=1.8 m/s).
of the slugs. The slugs plotted look reasonably consistent but over a Experiment Correlation Q3D CFD
longer time period there was some variation in their frequency, length Slug Frequency (Hz) 0.2 0.2 0.2
and shape. Figure 15 includes the height of liquid as measured at Slug Velocity (m/s) 3.07 - 3.29 3.2 2.8
the inlet of the bend, and a Power Spectral Analysis (PSD) performed Slug Length (m) 1.55 - 1.76 2.24 1.9
on the predicted hold-up time history. Table 3 compares predicted
slug characteristics with those measured and those based on 6.3 Force Prediction
correlations; Fetter (14) was used for frequency, Tay and Thorpe for A comparison of measured and predicted resultant forces on
velocity and Taitel (18) for length. The slug frequency was calculated the bend is given in Figure 16. The measurements were taken
by performing a Power Spectral Density analysis on the hold-up using a quartz force sensor to provide forces in the two horizontal
time history (Figure 15), and taking the dominant frequency. Slug components. The peak magnitude of the resultant force in the
velocity and length was calculated in exactly the same way as for experiment was about 67 N for two of the slugs, with the third slug
the TNO 4" case described in section 5.1. It would be beneficial slightly less. The peak resultant force predicted by CFD varied
to run the Q3D CFD simulations for a longer time period to collect depending on the length and liquid content given by the Q3D CFD
more statistical data on the slugs; this would result in a smoother inlet, but the average peak magnitude was 65 N. There is significant
PSD distribution. Comparisons of the Q3D CFD slug characteristics variation in the characteristics of the slugs generated by the Q3D
with measurements and correlations are good, providing a second CFD approach as illustrated by the liquid hold-up plotted in4

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Figure 16 in comparison to that in Figure 15. For the slugs illustrated superficial velocities of the two phases
in Figure 16 the peak varied from 92 N down to 18 N. There appeared predicted slugs vary in frequency, velocity and length, therefore
to be less variation in the measured forces in the experiment though giving a distribution of forcing frequencies, rather than matching
only data for three slugs were published. with a single slug frequency provided by a correlation
in principle, the approach should be valid for the high-pressure
conditions typically experienced subsea, for which there is little or
no experimental data or correlation available
It has been shown that Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
methods can predict realistic forcing functions that can be used to
analyse stress and fatigue in complex combinations of bends and
tees, typically seen in subsea flow-lines, manifolds and jumpers.

8.0 Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their thanks to the JIP sponsors
Aker Solutions, BP, FMC, Lundin, Shell, Statoil, Suncor and Total as
well as in-kind sponsors and software providers CD-adapco. Also
thanks to TNO who provided measurement data for comparisons
with the TNO 4" test loop.

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Multiphase fluid structure interaction in bends and t-joints,
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(4) S.P.C. Belfroid, M.F. Carnelutti, W. Schiferli, M. van Osch,
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predicted liquid hold-up (bottom) time histories for the Tay and Thorpe proceedings of ASME 2010 3rd Joint US European Fluids
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The benefits of using the Q3D CFD approach are: August 2011
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A Screening Approach based on Numerical Simulation, SPE


Offshore Europe Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition,
Aberdeen, 3-6 September 2013
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Flow Meter, M,Sc. Thesis, TUDelft, Delft, The Netherlands,
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