Gas–liquid two-phase flow division at a micro-T-junction

Abstract

The phase distribution of a gas–liquid flow through a 1 mm T junction has been studied. Gas superficial velocities of 2.5 and 4.9 m/s and liquid superficial velocities 0.09–0.42 m/s were investigated. Increasing the liquid superficial velocity was shown to decrease the liquid taken off at the side arm. Increasing the gas superficial velocity was found to affect the phase split by increasing the fractional liquid taken off. It was noticed that pressure has no influence in the phase split when it was increased from 0.13 to 0.18 MPa. From examination of data from different pipe sizes, it was seen that the 1 mm T-junction shared similar split characteristics as those observed for larger diameter junctions. Finally, the gas–liquid flow pattern through the junction was observed to be slug for a range of gas and liquid superficial velocities.