Abstract:
To understand flow pattern and pressure drop behavior of two-phase flow in a distributor tubes, a basic study has been carried out by using air and water as working fluids. The distributor consists of one inlet and two outlet tube branches, upper part and lower part respectively. In experiments, the volumetric flow rates of air and water from each outlet branch were measured and the flow pattern was observed by using a high-speed video camera. Numerical analyses are also carried out by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) by Fluent software. Similar flow pattern has been obtained by the experiment and CFD. The two-phase pressure drops were calculated using an analytical model, and it was compared with the CFD. On the other hand, the two-phase flow deviation ratio of the experiment and CFD showed small difference for the water and large difference for the air. The description of flow pattern by experiment and numerical are agreed well with the flow pattern on Mandhane and Baker flow pattern map. There are some differences in the pressure drop obtained by the analytical model and CFD, and they are increases with the increasing of superficial gas velocity. The pressure drop is biggest at branching part of the distributor, because of sudden enlargement and sudden contraction in branch
