ON TWO-PHASE FLOW PRESSURE DROP PREDICTION USING CFD MODELING IN HORIZONTAL PIPE SUBJECTED TO A SUDDEN CONTRACTION: VALIDATION

Abstract

In this work, pressure drop through sudden contraction in mini circular pipe have been numerically investigated, using air and water as the working fluids at room temperature and near atmospheric pressure. Numerical methods include the use of two-phase computational dynamics CFD calculations based on VOF method were used to predict the pressure. The calculated pressure drop is determined by extrapolating the computed pressure profiles upstream and downstream the contraction. The tubes inside diameters are respectively 40 mm and 30 mm with a contraction ratio of 0,567. The superficial velocities, investigated in this work, ranged for the gas from 0.54 to 5.5 m/s and for the liquid from 0.011 up to 0.24 m/s. The numerical results are validated against experimental data from the literature and are found to be in good agreement