AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON TWO-PHASE PRESSURE DROP IN SMALL DIAMETER HORIZONATL, DOWNWARD INCLINED AND VERTICAL TUBES

Abstract

An experimental study of two-phase pressure drop in small diameter tubes orientated horizontally, vertically and at two other downward inclinations of Θ = 300 and Θ = 600 is described in this paper. Acrylic transparent tubes of internal diameters 4.0, 6.0, and 8.0 mm with lengths of 400 mm were used as the test section. Air-water mixture was used as the working fluid. Two-phase pressure drop was measured and compared with the existing correlations. These correlations are commonly used for calculation of pressure drop in macro and mini-microchannels. It is observed that the existing correlations are inadequate in predicting the two-phase pressure drop in small diameter tubes. Based on the experimental data, a new correlation has been proposed for predicting the two-phase pressure drop. This correlation is developed by modification of Chisholm parameter C by incorporating different parameters. It was found that the proposed correlation predicted two-phase pressure drop at satisfactory level.

Keywords

Dates

  • Submission Date2013-01-18
  • Revision Date2013-05-25
  • Acceptance Date2013-06-05
  • Online Date2013-06-16

DOI Reference

10.2298/TSCI130118081A

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