Investigation of the Effect of Side Arm Orientation of the T-Junction on Gas-Liquid Stratified Flow

T-junctions are important structures used in a number of industries to separate gas and liquid. This work studied the effect of the orientation of the side arm on the separation efficiency using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach, and a new mechanical model is developed based on force analysis to predict the liquid carryout threshold. Laboratory experiments from published works are used to verify the CFD simulation and the new model. In this work, the angle of the side arm to the horizontal plane, alpha, and the angle of the side arm to the main arm's axial direction, beta, are investigated. The results show that with increasing beta, the liquid carryover threshold increases accordingly, demonstrating that the liquid can be more easily carried to the side arm, while the liquid-carrying performance in the side arm is not sensitive to the inclination angle, beta. Hence, in the new model, the inclination angle of is ignored. Experimental data are collected to validate the new model. The results show that this model can accurately predict the liquid carryover threshold, and the relative error is 4.16%.

Automated summary

This study develops a new mechanical model based on force analysis to predict the liquid carryout threshold in T-junctions. The effect of the orientation of the side arm on separation efficiency is investigated using computational fluid dynamics. The results show that the angle of the side arm has an impact on the liquid carryover threshold, while the liquid-carrying performance in the side arm is not affected. The new model is validated through experimental data and achieves accurate prediction of the liquid carryout threshold.