Effects of pipe size and system pressure on the phase redistribution in horizontal impacting tee junctions

An experimental investigation was conducted on the phase redistribution during air-water flow in horizontal impacting tee junctions. The main objective of the investigation was to examine the individual effects of pipe diameter and system pressure on the phase redistribution. The data correspond to a wide range of inlet conditions encompassing inlet flow regimes of stratified, wavy, and annular; the whole range of mass split ratios at the junction; pipe diameters of 13.5 and 37.8 mm; and two system pressures of 150 and 200 kPa (abs). The experiments have shown that the pipe diameter has a small effect on phase redistribution for the whole tested range. On the other hand, system pressure was found to have a significant effect on phase redistribution at small inlet velocities and this effect was found to decrease as the inlet velocities increased. The experimental data were compared with predictions from three analytical models. None of the three models succeeded in predicting these trends with consistency.