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ARTICLE

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Analysis of the Influence of Asymmetric Pressure Conditions on the Splitting of a Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow at a T-Junction

Lihui Ma¹, Limin He^1,2,*, Xiaoming Luo^1,2, Xiangran Mi³

1 College of Pipeline and Civil Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao, 266580, China
2 Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Oil & Gas Storage and Transportation Safety, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao, 266580, China
3 China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation, Beijing, 100034, China

* Corresponding Author: Limin He. Email:

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Advanced Oil and Gas Transportation and Treatment Technologies)

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2021, 17(5), 959-970. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2021.016710

Received 19 March 2021; Accepted 21 April 2021; Issue published 05 July 2021

Abstract

Dedicated experiments and numerical simulations have been conducted to investigate the splitting characteristics of a gas-liquid two phase flow at a T junction. The experiments were carried out for different gas-liquid velocities. The flow rates in the two branches were measured accurately to determine how the two considered phases distribute in the two outlets. The experimental results have shown that when the two outlet pressures are asymmetric, the two-phase flow always tends to flow into the outlet which has a lower pressure. As the inlet liquid velocity increases, however, the two-phase flow gradually tends to split evenly. Compared with the experiment results, the pressure difference between the two outlets can be determined more accurately by means of numerical simulation. The trends of experimental results and simulations are in very good agreement.

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Keywords

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