Journals Proceedings

Abstract

This paper presents experimental investigations on the effects of liquid properties on pressure drop for both single-phase and two-phase flows through sudden contraction in horizontal rectangular minichannel. In order to know the effects, water and viscoelastic liquid, namely 0.1 wt% polyacrylamide (PAM) aqueous solution are selected as the working liquid, while air as the working gas. Liquid single-phase and air-liquid two-phase flow experiments were conducted at room temperature using a horizontal rectangular mini-channel with a sudden contraction. The cross-sectional dimensions of the channel with the height (H), the width (W) and the hydraulic diameter (DH) for the narrow channel are 2.79 mm, 3.09 mm and 2.94 mm, while those for the wide channel are 2.95 mm, 5.98 mm and 3.95 mm. The local pressure upstream and downstream from the contraction were measured with calibrated pressure transducer to determine the pressure drop due to the contraction. As an analysis, the resulting data on the pressure drop at the contraction were compared with several correlations in literature. Results of such experiment and analysis are reported in the present paper.