Experimental investigation of oil-water partial separation using a controlled tee junction

The performance of a partial oil-water separator is investigated experimentally. The separator is made of a T-junction with the run arms placed horizontally while the branch arm is placed with its axis vertical. The branch arm is closed except for a small opening through which the dense liquid (water) is drained at a controlled rate. The experimental flow loop is designed to supply the tee separator with a premixed oil-water flow with a constant water cut of approximately 50% at different flow rates. The tee separator is designed so that the length of the branch arm can be changed using a piston at its lower end. The performance measurements considered for the tee separator are the volume flow rate and the quality of the separated dense liquid. The experimental results have shown that the performance characteristics of the tee separator depends on the volume flow rate in the run arms, the length of the branch arm and the flow rate of the drained dense fluid. The results indicated that the system efficiency increases with increasing Stokes number and the length of the branch arm and decreases with increasing the mixture Reynolds number and Froude number.