Pressure Drop in Emergency Vent Lines with Two‐Phase Flow of Gas and Viscous Liquid

Abstract

AbstractIt was investigated if empirical models from the literature are capable to predict the two‐phase pressure drop with highly viscous liquids in vent lines behind polymerization reactors or for production applications. The experiments were performed with upward pipe flow of nitrogen and water‐Luviskol® solutions with varying dynamic viscosities. By measuring the difference of the static pressure in a vertical pipe across a test section, the gradient of the friction pressure was determined. The frictional pressure gradients show some unexpected scatter and even negative gradients were found in case of slug flow. A comparison with eight models shows for three of them a sufficient accuracy for the measured two‐phase flow data with highly viscous liquids if the empirical parameters in the models are adapted to the new measurements.