Effect of phase properties on liquid-liquid two-phase flow patterns and pressure drop in serpentine mini geometry

Abstract

In the present study, a comparative analysis of the flow patterns and pressure drop in a serpentine miniature geometry of inner diameter 2 mm and a serpentine annulus miniature geometry with an effective inner diameter 1.73 mm are carried out. Three pairs of liquids have been considered for this purpose. Four different flow patterns have been observed in serpentine geometry, while only two flow patterns are observed in serpentine annulus geometry. The range of occurrence of flow patterns depends on if the low or high viscous medium liquid surrounds the dispersed phase. The effect of phase properties found to be diminished if a hydrophilic wire is placed inside the serpentine geometry. It enhances slug coalescence and subsequent break-up and leads to the formation of slug droplet and dispersed droplet flow patterns across all the liquid pairs. Further, a unified approach is proposed to estimate the drop in pressure, which shows an acceptable agreement with the experimental results.