Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Transient Liquid Slug Motion in a Voided Line

Abstract

In this paper, the hydrodynamics of a single transient slug in a voided line was investigated numerically and experimentally. In the experiments, the liquid slugs of various lengths were propelled into an inclined smooth steel pipe under several different driving air pressures. The pipe segment terminates in an open ended elbow; the pressure time histories are recorded at this elbow. The recorded peak pressures are correlated to the tank pressures and pipe and slug geometry. Dimensionless parameters are developed to present the experimental data. Moreover, the flow is investigated numerically using several Godunov type schemes, namely, basic Godunov Scheme, Total Variation Diminishing (TVD), based Weighted Average Flux (WAF) method and two different Monotone Upstream Schemes for Conservation Laws (MUSCL) methods. These schemes employ Godunov’s approach facilitating exact and Harten, Lax and van Leer’s modified approximate solver (HLLC) type solution methods solving the Riemann problem of gas dynamics equations. Furthermore, the recorded peak pressures at the elbow are compared with the results of the numerical analysis and results of two earlier studies.