Design of a Transparent Multiphase Flow Facility for Non-Invasive Optical Investigations

A multiphase flow facility was designed to handle flow in three phases: water, air and oil. Two pumps, one for water and one for mineral oil are placed at the end of a separation tank, two branches of 2 in. pipe coming out from each pump run at the very top of the bench; water and oil are mixed 6 feet before the air injection. A tube with four entries of 1/2 in each was built for the injection of air. Ten feet of cast acrylic pipe is placed in front of the injection of air to visualize the pattern. An optical countoring allows a more accurate view of the inside of the tube. This optical countoring was specially designed for the acrylic filled with water. Separation is done by segregation. This facility was created specifically to study bubble flow and reproduce the behavior of the coalescence and breakup of bubbles and droplets of oil. The analysis over the bubble flow is made by using an optical sensing method (non-intrusive method). The facility can be used to study other flow regimes of two and three phases. The observations of flow of water and air are presented in this paper.