Pressure drop for two-phase mixtures combining in a tee junction with wavy flow in the combined side

The pressure losses of air-water mixtures passing through a horizontal, combining tee junction with a pipe diameter of 37.8 mm were experimentally studied with a focus on conditions that resulted in wavy outlet flows. The test matrix independently varied outlet flow rates, outlet mixture qualities, the gas distribution between the inlets, and the liquid distribution between the inlets. All experiments were conducted at room temperature and a nominal absolute pressure at the center of the junction of 150 kPa. The pressure distribution in all three legs of the tee was determined using 43 pressure taps distributed among the three sides and monitored using pressure transducers to produce accurate measurements of the pressure losses. New empirical coefficients are provided for an existing model and allow accurate prediction of pressure losses for flows with a wavy outlet.