Experimental and Numerical Development of a Two-Phase Venturi Flow Meter

Abstract

An algebraic model is developed access the gas and the liquid flow rates of a two-phase mixture through a Venturi tube. The flow meter operates with upward bubbly flows with low gas content, i.e., volumetric void fraction bellow 12%. The algebraic model parameters stem from numerical modeling and its output is checked against the experimental values. An indoor test facility operating with air-water and air-glycerin mixtures in a broad range of gas and liquid flow rates reproduces the upward bubbly flow through the Venturi tube. Measurements of gas and liquid flow rates plus the static pressure acroos the Venturi constitute the experimental database. The numerical flow modeling uses the isothermal, axis-symmetric with no phase change representation of the Two-Fluid model. The numerical output feeds the Venturi’s algebraic model with the proper constants and parameters embodying the two-phase flow physics. The novelty of this approach is the development of each flow meter model accordingly to its on characteristics. The flow predictions deviates less than 14% from experimental data while the mixture pipe Reynolds number spanned from 500 to 50,000.