| In the present investigation, phase-distribution and pressure-drop data were generated for air-water flows in a horizontal impacting tee junction. The junction was machined in an acrylic block with the three sides, all horizontal, having a diameter of 0.0378 m. The operating conditions were as follows: a junction pressure of 1.5 bar, an inlet temperature near the ambient, inlet superficial gas velocity in the range of 0.5 ≤ J G1 ≤ 40 m/s, inlet superficial liquid velocity in the range of 0.0026 ≤ JL1 ≤ 0.18 m/s, and an extraction ratio in the range of 0.0 ≤ W3/W1 ≤ 1.0. These inlet conditions lead to the observation of the following flow regimes in the inlet pipe: stratified, stratified-wavy, wavy, and annular.; It was found that the phases did not distribute themselves evenly between the two outlets unless the extraction ratio was 0.5. For a fixed JG1, as JL1 increases, the line, or curve that represents the data rotates in a clockwise direction around the point of (0.5,0.5) on coordinates of FBL vs. FBG. For a fixed JL1, as JG1 increases, the line, or curve that represents the data rotates in an anti-clockwise direction around the point of (0.5,0.5) on coordinates of FBL vs. F BG. The previously-mentioned effects of J L1 and JG1 are consistent with the observations of El-Shaboury et al. (2001) for others' data. These effects of J L1 and JG1 on the phase distribution are valid within each inlet flow regime; however, these effects may not hold near the flow-regime boundaries.; Comparisons of the present phase-distribution data and the data of other researchers under similar conditions were made. These comparisons showed good agreement in general. Some present phase-distribution data were compared against the data of Azzopardi et al. (1986a) for a vertical inlet and annular flow. That comparison also showed a good agreement even though the inlet orientation was different.; The phase-distribution data were compared against the models of Ottens et al. (1995) and Hwang (1986). These two models were found to be the best available models for predicting phase distribution in horizontal impacting tee junctions (El-Shaboury et al. (2001)). For annular and wavy flows, the model of Ottens et al. gave better overall predictions of the present data. For stratified flows, none of the two models gave good predictions.; For the present data, the pressure drops DeltaP 12 and DeltaP13 were found to depend on the inlet conditions (JG1 and J L1) and the extraction ratio (W3/ W1). In general, the absolute values of the pressure drops increased with the increase in the inlet mass flow rate. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
