Important in many areas of chemical and process engineering The behaviour of the material will depend on the properties

of the component, flowrates and geometry of the system Examples:

Mixtures of liquids with gas or vapour Liquids mixed with solid particles (hydraulic transport) Gases carrying solid particles (pneumatic transport) Multiphase systems containing solids, liquids and gases

Liquids may have densities up to 3 magnitude greater than gases but do not exhibit any significant compressibility Range from simple Newtonian liquids to non-Newtonian fluids with very high viscosities Large variation in density and viscosity responsible for the large differences in behaviour of solid-gas and solid-liquid mixtures For all multiphase flow system, it is important to understand the nature of the interaction between the phases and how these influence the flow patterns (phases distributions over cross-section of pipe/duct) Predicting pressure drop depends on the flow patterns and relative velocity (slip velocity) of the phases which influence the hold up (fraction of the pipe volume which is occupied by a particular phases)

When the flow involves 2-component mixtures, the hold up of a component will differ from that in the mixture discharged at the end of the pipe Why? Because the residence time of the components will not be the same as a result of slip of the phases relative to one another 3 aspects of complex mixtures flow that must be considered: The flow patterns The hold up of the individual phases and their relative velocities The relationship between pressure gradient in a pipe and the flowrates and physical properties of the phases

Difference in density determining the flow pattern In gas-solid and gas-liquid mixtures, gas will be the lighter phase In liquid-solid mixtures, liquid will be the lighter phase In vertical upward flow, the lighter phase will rise more quickly giving rise to slip velocity For liquid-solid or gas-solid system, this slip velocity will be close to the terminal falling velocity of the particles

Horizontal Flow Flow pattern is influenced by the pipe diameter, physical properties and their flowrates As the velocities and the gas-liquid ratio increases, changes will take place from bubble flow to mist flow

At high liquid-gas ratio, the liquid forms the continuous phase and at low values it forms the disperse phase In intervening region, there is some instability and sometimes several flow regimes are lumped together In plug/slug flow, the gas is flowing faster than the liquid, therefore, the liquid from the slug tends to detached and move as a slow moving film along the surface of the pipe significant proportion of total energy losses

The region over which the different types of flow can occur is shown on a Flow Pattern Map Gas flowrate is plotted against liquid flowarte These divisions are only approximation, there is no clear cut between any 2 flow patterns

Vertical flow In vertical flow, axial symmetry exists and flow patterns more stable For slug flow in vertical pipes, oscillations can occur as a result of sudden changes in pressure as liquid slugs are discharged at the end of the pipe

Gas always flow at a velocity greater than the liquid Therefore, the in situ volumetric fraction of liquid at any point in a pipeline will be greater than the input volume fraction of liquid Lockhart and Martinelli expressed hold up in terms of parameter X, characteristic of the relative flowrates of liquid and gas as:

Liquid hold up can be calculated using equation 5.2 for: Newtonian fluids in laminar or turbulent flow Non-Newtonian fluids in turbulent flow only

For non-Newtonian laminar flow, use equation 5.3

The total pressure gradient in a horizontal pipe, (-dPTPF/dl), consists of two components which represents the frictional and the acceleration pressure gradients:

However, these equation cannot be used in practice since the individual phase velocities and local densities are not known

Most widely used method for estimating pressure drop due to friction proposed by Lockhart and Martinelli The two-phase pressure drop due to friction, -PTPF is taken as the pressure drop PL or PG that would arise for either phase flowing alone in the pipe at the stated rate, multiplied by some factor L2 or G2