ICONE15-10675 EFFECT OF INLET TWO-PHASE FLOW PATTERN ON THE ANNULAR FLOW LIQUID SEPARATION PHENOMENA

A two-phase flow liquid separation phenomenon by an annular flow liquid separator is experimentally investigated, where this type of separator does not have any intrusive section inside the pipe, and hence an inspection pig can freely pass through the separator. The separator consist of segments of Perspex tubing containing holes in the separation sections. The test was conducted for a 2 cm i.d. flow pipe and inlet two-phase flow patterns of stratified, slug and annular flow are studied for superficial gas velocities from 0 to 7 m/s and superficial liquid velocities from 0 to 0.2 m/s. The experimental results show that up to 100% separation can be obtained for lower liquid flow superficial velocity (< 0.08 m/s) and lower gas flow superficial velocity (<1.7 m/s), where the flow patterns observed are mostly for stratified smooth and wavy flow as the superficial gas velocity increases up to 7 m/s. The efficiency of separation increases with gas superficial at lower superficial gas velocity and the effect of superficial gas velocity is not significant for higher superficial gas velocity. However, the efficiency of separation decreases with increasing superficial liquid velocity.