Experimental study on two-phase flow pressure drop in small diameter bends

SummaryMeasurement of two-phase flow pressure drop and its prediction across curved tubes and bends is important for the enhancement of the performance and safety of the heat exchangers and flow transmitting devices. The comparative study of some of the available two-phase pressure drop correlations reveals that the predicted values of pressure drops by these leading methods may differ by large. The applicability of these correlations to the small diameter tubes of range 4.0–8.0mm and different bend angles of the range 90–180° is not fully established. The basic objective of the present experimental investigation is to generate the experimental data to develop the unified correlation applicable for the small diameter tubes of range 4.0–8.0mm and different bend angles of the range 90–180°. Hence, experimental facility was developed to conduct the experiments to generate the data and to assess the predictive capability of some of the available two-phase pressure drop correlations. It was observed that the correlations considered for comparisons were unable to satisfactorily predict the measured experimental data within the ±50% error bands. A new correlation is developed in terms of curvature multiplier to the straight tube two-phase pressure drop. The correlation is validated with the present measured experimental data. The statistical analysis suggests that correlation shows satisfactory results