Abstract—An experimental investigation was conducted with a novel system of two combined vertical impacting tee junctions in order to study the phase-separation capability of the system for air-water two-phase flows. The idea was to extend the range of inlet conditions (inlet gas and liquid superficial velocities, J_G1 and J_L1, respectively) under which full separation of phases can be achieved, using only impacting tee junctions. Beyond the range of full separation, the effect of J_G1 and J_L1 on phase-separation effectiveness in the annular flow regime was studied for the entire range of gas extraction ratios (0 to 1). Data were obtained at a nominal pressure of 200 kPa (abs) and ambient temperature, with equal-sided tee junctions of internal diameter 13.5 mm. Results show that, compared to a system with a single impacting tee junction, the present design nearly doubles the J_L1, at a fixed J_G1 and J_G1 at a fixed J_L1, under which full separation of phases takes place. In the annular flow regime, decreasing J_G1 or J_L1 affects phase redistribution in a way that increases effectiveness of phase separation. A ‘separation parameter’, η has been defined to quantify this effect. 
 

Index Terms—two-phase flow, multiple vertical impacting tee junctions, full separation, partial separation, phase-separation parameter

Cite: Samina Noor and Hassan M. Soliman, "Experimental Investigation of Phase-Separation Effectiveness of Combined Impacting Tee Junctions," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 333-339, May 2019. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.8.3.333-339