Flow regime identification of two-phase liquid–liquid upflow through vertical pipe

The present work has attempted to identify the flow patterns during liquid–liquid two phase flow through a vertical pipe. Dyed kerosene and water have been selected as the test fluids. The measurements have been made for phase velocities varying from 0.05 to 1.5 m/s for both the liquids. The conductivity probe technique has been adopted and three different probe designs have been used to identify the patterns under different flow conditions. A parallel wire type probe traversing the entire cross-section along a diametral plane has indicated the existence of bubbly flow at low phase flow rates and dispersed bubbly flow at high velocities of water. Apart from the visual appearance of the signals, different statistical analysis namely the probability density function and wavelet analysis have been performed for a better appraisal of the flow situation. The information in the PDFs have been quantified by means of the statistical moments. The existence of the core-annular flow at high kerosene and low water velocities has been confirmed from measurements using a different probe design. The intermediate region between the bubbly and annular flow patterns is characterized by a random distribution of the two liquids with continually changing interface between them. This has been named as the churn turbulent flow pattern. The information thus obtained has been represented in the form of a flow pattern map.