An experimental study for the characterisation of gas/liquid flow splitting at T-junctions

In two-phase gas/liquid flow, the phenomenon of maldistribution of the phases occurring downstream of a splitting T-junction has been the topic of investigation of several authors. The negative consequences of this maldistribution on the operation of downstream unit have often led to the conclusion that T-junctions in two-phase pipelines are to be avoided. However, the large degree of segregation of the phases obtained at the outlets of a T-junction for certain flow rates and geometries, has encouraged Industry and researchers to exploit this simple device as a partial phases separator. In this work, experiments and interpretations are carried out in two experimental rigs, one with a horizontal main pipe (0.127 ID) and the other with a vertical main pipe (0-076). These consist of measurement of the split characteristic and, in the case of horizontal annular flow, of film thickness. Comparison with predictive models is carried out for the horizontal geometry. For the vertical main pipe experiments, interpretation and semi-empirical correlations are proposed to fit a large database including the present data and previous findings