Experimental research on pressure drop of wet gas flow in Venturi

• Dimensional analysis is used to establish pressure drop correlation.
• L–M parameter and gas Froude number are important parameters in the correlation.
• Average relative error of this correlation is about 3.85%.
• Root mean square error is about 2.5%.

In the research of wet gas, the pressure drop is an important parameter in the design of the pipelines and the selection of the wet gas flow meters. Although an algorithm is described in the ISO11583 technical report that used to predict pressure loss ratio (PLR), the exploration of this method still need to be studied under the different flow conditions. A new correlation of pressure drop is proposed based on the important influence factors. Dimensional analysis is adopted to find the significant dimensionless parameters to establish the correlation of PLR, such as Lockhart–Martinelli parameter and gas Froude number. The experiment of the Venturi tube has been carried out in the wet gas flow loop of Tianjin University. In the test, the static pressure of pipe ranged from 0.2 to 1.2 MPa and the superficial gas velocity ranged from 5 to 10 m/s. Results implied that the correlation of ISO11583 gave an unsatisfactory prediction of PLR. In order to improve the accuracy, the new correlation in this work was based on the dimensional analysis and experimental data. Finally, the average relative error of this correlation is about 3.85% and the root mean square error is about 2.5%.