Experimental Investigation of Slug Flow Characteristics in a Pipe Elbow Using Digital Image Correlation

Authors

  • Asma Mozaffari * Faculty of Mechanical & Energy Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
  • Fatemeh Aminipour Faculty of Mechanical & Energy Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
  • Mahtab Afshar Mofakham Faculty of Mechanical & Energy Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
  • Mahan Javanmard Faculty of Mechanical & Energy Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
  • Mojtaba Sedaghat Faculty of Mechanical & Energy Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
  • Rohollah Sarfaraz khabbaz Faculty of Mechanical & Energy Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
  • Ali Jahangiri Faculty of Mechanical & Energy Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22105/jeee.vi.47

Abstract

One of the most important factors that cause damage to pipelines is the formation of some two-phase flow patterns inside the pipeline. One of the two-phase flow patterns that cause vibration and leakage of pipelines is slug current. Occurrence of slug flow in pipelines due to excessive force on the pipe walls, causing leakage in them and causing damage to power plants and hydrocarbon industries. Due to the waste of energy, cost and even manpower in this phenomenon, the laboratory study of the stress caused by the slug flow on the knee is studied.In this study, the amount of stress due to slug flow on the elbow in the open valve position is investigated using the DIC method in the open cycle laboratory stop. By designing Taguchi experiment for water & gas velocity and water height parameters, it was observed that the time and place of formation of the first slug flow by adjusting water and gas flow rate is the height of the control panel. The closer water level is to the maximum height in different water flows, the faster and further the slug flow occurs in a given flow, and the stronger the blows to the pipe and then to the elbow. The results showed that the water flow depends on the height of surface and also the gas flow has the greatest effect on the stress. The presence of pipe and high velocity of gas relative to water of the slug flow can be seen.

Keywords:

Slug flow, Elbow, Experimental study, Taguchi design of experiment , DIC method

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Published

2025-08-21

Issue

Articles in Press

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Mozaffari, A., Aminipour, F., Afshar Mofakham, M., Javanmard, M., Sedaghat, M., Sarfaraz khabbaz, R., & Jahangiri, A. (2025). Experimental Investigation of Slug Flow Characteristics in a Pipe Elbow Using Digital Image Correlation. Journal of Environmental Engineering and Energy. https://doi.org/10.22105/jeee.vi.47

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