Experimental study of air–oil–water flow in a balancing valve

• Air–oil–water flow patterns are distinguished,
• New method for determining loss coefficient is presented,
• New method for determining pressure drops ensures high precision of calculation.

This paper reports the results of research into air–oil–water flow through balancing valves. The testing applied commercial Zetkama valves. The tests were performed with the use of 4 balancing valves with the nominal diameters of 15, 25, 32 and 40 mm. The testing enabled the determination of the flow patterns forming in the vicinity of the valve. It was concluded that the examined valves do not significant result in flow pattern disturbances. In addition, a correlation was derived which can be used for determining the value of the local pressure drop for the examined type of valves. The presented correlation could be potentially applied for determining pressure drop during gas–liquid mixture flow in industrial installations and apparatus.