A numerical model for simulating separated gas-liquid two-phase flow with low GVF in a V-cone flowmeter

Abstract

One of the relatively new types of differential pressure flowmeters is the V-Cone (conical or cone) meter. In addition to having many advantages over other types, this flowmeter can also be used in multiphase flows. In the last few decades, many numerical works have been presented for single-phase flows. But in the discussion of two-phase flow, most of the available works are related to experimental research. Therefore, in this paper, the separated two-phase flow with a low gas volume fraction (GVF) has been numerically investigated. For this purpose, an unstructured grid and finite volume numerical method were used. In order to model the two-phase flow and turbulence, the existing approaches were compared. According to the results obtained, the volume of fluid (VOF) method for simulating two-phase flow and the Realizable k-ε model for turbulence modeling lead to better results than other investigated models. Also, by stimulating the flow with the aforementioned methods, it was found that the accuracy of the pressure calculation decreases with the reduction of the superficial velocity and volume fraction of the gas. Furthermore, for a more detailed analysis, the superiority of the Realizable k-ε turbulence model compared to other investigated models was proved quantitatively.