Fluid Dynamics and Pressure Drop Prediction of Two-Phase Flow Through Sudden Contractions

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to investigate fluid dynamics and pressure drop across sudden contractions in a two-dimensional, axisymmetric pipe carrying a two-phase mixture of air (secondary phase) and water (primary phase), using the Eulerian–Eulerian model of the multiphase flow physics to solve the mass, momentum, volume fraction and turbulent quantities with relevant boundary conditions in a finite volume framework. The realizable per-phase k-ε and Reynolds stress models have been used as the closure for turbulent quantities along with enhanced wall function for the near-wall treatment. The effects of various parameters such as mass flux, mass flow quality, area ratio (0.056–0.619), flow directions (horizontal/vertical), and system pressure on the two-phase pressure drops due to a contraction in the pipe have been quantified. For both the single and two-phase flows, it has been observed that the pressure drop decreases with area ratio, and increases with mass flux and mass flow quality of two-phase flow. The vena contracta for a single-phase flow was found. But for two-phase flow, neither the vena contracta nor the recirculation zone has been observed, as the mass quality exceeds above 50%. A higher pressure drop has been observed for vertical pipes as compared to horizontal pipes. The present numerical results have also been validated with published experimental results, believed to be one of the alternatives to the costly experimental methods for predicting the flow dynamics and pressure drop.