الفهرس 
EXPERIMENTAL SETUPOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 16 |  |  |
| | | from | 16 | | |
Abstract
The current study presents an experimental work on emulsion fluid flow(oil-in-water) through curved diffusers. The experimental set-up was designed and constructed to perform the experimental studies which have been carried out on
five models of curved diffusers. The measurements of pressure distributions along the outer and inner walls of the curved diffusers were performed for different area ratios (ratio of exit area to inlet area of cross section), for different curvature ratios ratio of centre-line arc radius to inlet width), for different inflow Reynolds numbers and for different emulsion holdup values (ratio of oil volume to emulsion volume). The experimental work was carried out using two sets of (o/w) emulsions,
the first is stabilized o/w emulsion using Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS)
emulsifier, and the second is unstable o/w emulsion at different holdup values. The dispersed phase holdup changed from 3% up to 20%. Before going to the curved
diffuser study, separate measurements were devoted to the performance of the
main heart of the hydraulic circuit (centrifugal pump). The study on the used centrifugal pump has confirmed that the pump performance (the head and
efficiency of the pump) decrease with increase in oil concentration (holdupF) and the power consumption to drive the pump increases with increase in holdup (F).
The energy losses of each diffuser model are based on detailed measurements of the wall pressure distributions along the curved diffuser model including that along upstream and downstream tangents. Correlations for the curved diffusers resistance (energy-loss) coefficients ( d K ) were established for all these models.
The comparisons of results showed that the geometrical parameters (area
ratio and curvature ratio), inflow Reynolds, emulsion status, (stable or unstable) and emulsion holdup strongly affect the curved diffuser performance. It was found that as the area ratio, / exit inlet A A increases from 1.0 to 2.0 the energy loss coefficient decreases and as curvature ratio, / C R W increases from 5.0 to 12.5 the energy loss coefficient decreases. Also as Reynolds number Re E ref H E =r U D /μ ) increases from 13,000 to 28,500 the energy loss coefficient decreases. The energy loss coefficient increases as the holdup increases. The resistance coefficients of stable and unstable o/w emulsions are generally lower than that of pure water. The unstable o/w emulsions exhibits lower values in d K compared with stable o/w emulsions.
The results obtained from present study should be useful to those who are working in chemical and petroleum industries.