Pressure Drop of Two-Phase Flow Through Horizontal Channel with Smooth Expansion

Industrial systems at where gas-liquid flow is extensively used generally have complex geometries including singularities like expansion, contraction, bends and orifices. Thus two-phase flow characteristics, such as pressure drop, through these singularities should be identified in order to be used to design these systems. In this study, pressure drop of air-water flow through horizontal channel having smooth expansion is investigated experimentally. Internal diameter of the channel expands from 40 mm to 50 mm. Hence area ratio (σ) of the singularity is calculated to be 0.64. Flow rate for water is constant at 3 l/s while that for air is taken as 30, 50 and 60 l/min. In the experiments, effects of volumetric void fraction and injector type on two-phase pressure drop are examined. Flow under consideration is also modeled via commercial software, GAMBIT (v. 2.3.16) and ANSYS (v. 12). Experimental results are then compared with those obtained by the numerical simulation.