CFD NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF TWO-PHASE FLOW DEVELOPMENT AFTER AN EXPANSION DEVICE IN A HORIZONTAL PIPE
2020
To optimize a vertical flash tank separator, the characteristics of the flow entering the separator are
required to be known. A flash tank separator improves the performance of a refrigeration cycle by separating the
liquid from liquid-gas flow and providing the evaporator with only liquid refrigerant. This technique improves
the effective area and enhances the heat transfer coefficient in the evaporator. This paper investigates the influence of the inlet operating conditions to an expansion device, on the adiabatic two-phase flow development in a
horizontal pipe downstream from the expansion device. This work also compares three dimensional numerical
simulations and experimental observations for the two-phase flow development after the expansion device in the
horizontal pipe. A general trend of the two-phase flow after the expansion device was gradually developed and
the expansion length was identified at less than 200 mm from the inlet. The two-phase flow behaviour was
recorded using a digital camera recording the flow behaviour at the upstream and downstream of the horizontal
tube. The results revealed that an increase of the mass flow rate causes an increase in the void fraction and a
reduction in the slip ratio in the developed region. The simulations underestimate the expansion length and the
mean difference between the experimental data and the numerical results is 8 %
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