Flow Characteristics of Oil-Water Mixture in Horizontal Mini-Channel

Immiscible two components flow is widely observed in several engineering equipments such as pipeline, μ-TAS and so on, and it has been also utilized as the simulation of the two-phase flow under high pressure conditions. However, the knowledge of fluid characteristics in mini-channel is still not enough, especially the influence of the methods of the mixing is not clear. In order to clarify the flow characteristic of oil-water mixture in horizontal mini-channels, the experimental investigation was conducted by using a forced convective flow system with two different mixers with two mixing manners. The test section was made of glass tube with 0.53mm and 2.09 mm in inner diameter. As the experimental results, the several flow patterns were identified and flow pattern transition was correlated by using Weber number of each phase. The pressure drop for 2.09 mm took the characteristics of ordinary tube, while 0.53 mm took the typical characteristics of capillary tube. The obtained pressure drop showed a good agreement with Lockhart-Martinelli correlation.