Experimental study on interfacial friction factor of the air-water stratified two-phase flow in a horizontal pipe

Abstract

The Liquid hold-up and the Interfacial Friction Factor on the Air-Water Stratified Two-Phase Flow in a Horizontal Pipe have been experimentally investigated using superficial gas and liquid velocity of 4 – 16 m/s and 0.02 to 0.1 m/s, respectively. The stratified flow is observed on the horizontal acrylic pipe with 26 mm inner diameter and 9 m length. This present work has utilized the various methods of observation: visual observation through high speed video camera, hold up measurement by using CECM, and pressure gradient analysis which is gathered from the Validyne pressure transducer. The pressure gradient and liquid hold-up signal are sent through amplifier than converted into digital signal by Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). As a result, the characteristics of stratified flow is successfully revealed. Furthermore, a new correlation for hold-up which is based on the gas and liquid superficial velocity, and Froude number is proposed. The R2 which reaches 0.971 and the small value of error band (around 30 %) shows that the proposed correlation produce a good performance. Similarly, a new correlation for interfacial friction factor is also proposed which is arranged as a function of liquid hold-up, gas, and liquid Reynolds number. It produces a satisfying performance which is proven by the high value of R2, 0.999. Moreover, the error band between the proposed correlation and the experimental data is quite small, around 5 % on most of all data.