Single- and two-phase flow pressure drop through orifice

Abstract

Measurements of upward single and two-phase gas-liquid flow pressure drop through an orifice placed in a vertical pipe are reported. These were achieved using differential pressure transmitters. Six orifices of different diameters and thicknesses have been employed. The superficial velocities of the gas was varied from 0 to 4 m/s and for the liquid from 0.3 to 0.91 m/s. For single-phase flow it was found that the models of Idel’chik [1] and that proposed by Akhter et al. [2] correlate fairely good the orifice single-phase pressure drop coefficient for low open area ratio orifices. Moreover present data have been used to assess the most referenced correlations devoted for predicting two-phase flow pressure drop through orifice. It appeared that those of Morris and Simpson are the most reliable with an error of 7 to 20 %