Two-phase flow in a horizontal t-junction : pressure drop and phase separation

Abstract

Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 1-4 July, 2007.

An experimental investigation of dividing flow rates and pressure drops in a plexiglas tee junction with horizontal inlet, run, and branch sides using air-water mixtures has been performed. The branch stream is orthogonal to the inlet and run streams. The pipes forming the tee junction are about 1 m long, their inner diameter is 10 mm. The flow loop was supplied with compressed air and water through a mixing tee, at 1.5 bar and approximately ambient temperature. Air flow rate ranges from 0.3 to 9 Nl/s, water flow rate from 14.5 to 58 g/s, air superficial velocity from 1.5 to 47 m/s, water superficial velocity from 0.2 to 0.7 m/s and flow quality from 0.6% to 43%. The extraction ratio (branch flow rate / inlet flow rate) ranges from 0 to 1. Intermittent (bubble and slug flow) and annular flow patterns, as well as transition flow patterns have been obtained. Experimental values of flow rate, phases superficial velocity, extraction ratio and pressure drops across the tee junction pipes are here reported. Pressure drop test results across the inlet and branch pipes have also been compared with predicted ones. A new pressure drop correlation have been derived from test data.