A New Spool Piece for Horizontal Two-Phase Flow Measurements, Procs. 31th UIT National Heat Transfer Conference, Società Editrice Poliprint- Politecnico di Milano, Como, Italy, June 25- 27, 2013, Vol. 1, pp. - , ISBN: 97888-6493- 017-6

This works presents the characterization of a Spool Piece (SP), made up of a Classical Venturi and a Wire Mesh Sensor (WMS), that are installed in a horizontal test section, in which an air-water mixture flows. The test section consists of a horizontal Plexiglas pipe of internal diameter 19.5 mm and total length of about 10 m. The flow quality ranges from 0 to 0.73 and the superficial velocity ranges from 0.145 to 31.94 m/s for air and from 0.019 to 2.62 m/s for water; the pressure ranges from atmospheric pressure to 3.7 bar depending on the experimental conditions. The observed flow patterns are stratified-bubbly-slug/plug-annular. The instruments response is analyzed and discussed. The results, obtained with the developed model of the SP, are presented. From the signal analysis the flow pattern is identified and the mass flow rate of each phase is obtained. The developed model allows one to evaluate the mass flow rate with an accuracy higher than 20% in the 84% of the cases and with an accuracy higher than 10% in the 73% of the cases; moreover the evaluation of important two phase flow parameters can be performed by means of the WMS model. Finally the introduction of the estimated parameters in the SP model is considered and discussed.