THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF TWO- PHASE FLOW THROUGH PIPE FITTINGS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mech. Power Eng. Dept., Minofiya Univ., Shebin El-Kom, Egypt

Abstract

Two-phase air water flow through pipe fittings has been studied experimentally
and validated theoretically with developed formulas. Pressure drop across pipe fitting
such as thin and thick plate orifice, both sudden contraction and sudden expansion and
Venturi meters has been measured. Formulation for contraction coefficient and also
discharge coefficient are conducted. The results demonstrate that the contraction in two-
phase flow is depicted in a narrow ranges of mass flow qualities, less than 1.2% and a
greater than 90% where the flow regimes are specified as bubbly and spray ones
respectively. In addition the discharge coefficient is greatly affected with air mass flow
quality. Empirical formulas are presented for discharge and contraction coefficients as
function of Reynolds number, gas mass flow quality and area ratio. The experimental
measurements have been simulated with the predicted formula.