Effect of Diameter Ratio and Inclination Angle on Air-Water Separation Occurred at a Small Diameter T-Junction

Abstract

: The simple geometry configuration of T-junctions and their capability to act as partial phase separators, especially on offshore platforms, made them common pipeline system components in power and process industries. Moreover, in the pursuit of achieving better phase separation by controlling the maldistribution occurred in the component phases of a mixture at the junction, industries often utilise reduced T-junctions. Nevertheless, most of the published data in which industries was based on to adopt the previous configuration was relating on fully horizontal T-junctions with large main pipe diameters although T-junctions are rarely placed in a horizontal position in such industries, whilst the usage of small main pipe diameters could also lead to scaling down their size. In this regard, the present paper aimed to extend the available data by performing numerical analysis and studying both regular and reduced T-junctions with a small main pipe diameter, and upward inclination angles. It was observed that reduced T-junctions performed worse in terms of phase separation compared to regular T-junctions for all inlet conditions applied and irrespective of the side arm inclination, whereas in case of regular T-junctions a superior separation performance was ensured for the inclined side arm at 30°.