AIR WATER FLOW IN MINI CHANNEL

Abstract

Two-phase flow can be considered as the one of the class of multiphase flow. It can be solid-liquid flow, liquid-liquid flow, gas-solid flow, and gas-liquid flow. Gas-liquid flows displays a lot of complexities in due to presence of a deformable interface. Flow regimes or distribution are influenced by flow properties, channel orientation and type of introduction. In the present work, air-water flow in a square cross section serpentine mini channel is studied. Different concentration of glycerol are mixed with water to change the density and viscosity of water. Range of water lies in between 0.0067-0.2m/s thus comparison of results using glycerol in water and there change in physical properties viscosity, density, surface tension was carried out. Changes in flow patterns using glycerol in water was investigated For air glycerol water system only wavy annular, annular slug transition, wispy annular and bubble flow have been observed in case of 30% glycerol in deionised water, while wavy annular flow, slug flow, and ring flow have been observed when glycerol concentration increased to 50%. Pressure drop is higher in glycerol water-air flow when compared with simple deionized water due higher viscosity of the former. Pressure drop increases with increase in concentration of glycerol in deionised water. Experiments are also performed to explore the effect of batch mode of injection of water on pressure drop and flow regime. For these experiments two different orientation and thee channels are considered with hydraulic diameter of 1.65, 1.00 and 0.65 mm. Experiments are performed on different ranged of velocities in gas and water, 0.0011 m/s and 0.33 m/s and 0.33 m/s to 16.66 m/s, respectively. Here flow pattern observed are mostly annular and slug.