Development of kerosene-water two-phase up-flow in a vertical pipe downstream of A 90° bend.

The development of kerosene-water up-flow in a vertical pipe of 77.8 mm inner diameter and 4500 mm, length downstream of a 90° bend, has been investigated using a Pitot tube and dual optical probe. The CFD ANSYS Fluent 12.0 is used to model the flow and the results are compared with experimental data. The CFD provides detailed information on flow structure which is difficult to obtain in experiments. The experimental measurements of the local parameters demonstrate that the single phase and two-phase flows reached the fully developed axisymmetrical conditions at L/ D = 54. These results also show the severe asymmetry distributions of the two-phase flow parameters at the entrance region ( L/ D = 1). The predictions from Fluent are found to be in close agreement with experimental data for L/ D ≥ 16 but there is a significant discrepancy at L/ D = 1. © 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]