Dividing Steam-Water Annular Flow in T-Junctions with Horizontal Inlet and Downwardly Inclined Branch

Abstract

Experimental data on dividing steam-water two-phase annular flow in T-junctions having downwardly inclined branches was obtained. The experiments were performed under high inlet mass flux conditions which were not examined before. The data covered the inlet mass flux and inlet quality ranges: 600 < G1 < 900 kg/m2.s and 0.02 < X1 < 0.08. The branch orientation was found to be a significant parameter affecting phase separation under the present test conditions. This is caused by the non-uniform angular distributions of the liquid film thickness associated with the horizontal inlet annular flow. The pressure changes of two-phase flow in the junction were closely correlated with the phase separation phenomenon. The effect of branch orientation on junction pressure changes was only important in the range of flow split ratio before total phase separation took place. The data on pressure rise in the run and pressure drop in the junction were correlated using simple models based on momentum and mechanical energy balance.