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Excessive liquid carryover in T-junction presents a serious operational issue in offshore production platform. Slug flow and diameter ratio of T-junction are considered as two major factors causing liquid carryover. Regular and reduced T-junction are being used as partial phase separator but their efficiency is low. Converging T-junction with two distinct diameters (primary and secondary) in branch arm is used to improve the phase separation efficiency. The motivation is to combine specific feature of regular and reduced T-junction to increase separation efficiency of existing T-junction without involving too much operational workover. The purpose of this paper is to numerically evaluate the separation efficiency of a converging T-junction design. The present model and its methodology was validated with in-house experimental data for 3 inches diameter flow loop.

The slug flow regime was simulated using incompressible Eulerian mixture model coupled with volume of fluid method to capture the dynamic gas-liquid interface.

The analyses concluded that T-junction with primary-secondary branch arm diameters combination of 1.0-0.5 and 0.67-0.40 managed to achieve 95 per cent separation efficiency. The research also confirmed that over reduction of T-junction secondary diameter ratio below 0.2 will lead to decrease in separation efficiency.

The present research is limit to air/water two-phase flow but the general results should be applicable for wider application.

The proposed design limited excessive workover and installation for current and existing T-junction. Hence, cutting down installation cost while improving the separation efficiency.

The present research resulted in higher separation efficiency, cutting down production down time and lead to operational cost saving.

The present research proposes an original and new T-junction design that can increase phase separation efficiency to over 90 per cent. The finding also confirmed that there is a limitation whereby smaller diameter ratio T-junction does not always resulted in better separation.

Offshore industries encounter severe production downtime due to high liquid carryovers in the T-junction. The diameter ratio and flow regime can significantly affect the excess liquid carryovers. Unfortunately, regular and reduce T-junctions have low separation efficiencies. Ansys as a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was used to model and numerically inspect a novel diverging T-junction design. The purpose of diverging T-junction is to merge the specific characteristics of regular and reduced T-junctions, ultimately increasing separation efficiency. The purpose of this study is to numerically compute the separation efficiency for five distinct diverging T-junctions for eight different velocity ratios. The results were compared to regular and converging T-junctions.

Air-water slug flow was simulated with the help of the volume of the fluid model, coupled with the K-epsilon turbulence model to track liquid-gas interfaces.

The results of this study indicated that T-junctions with upstream and downstream diameter ratio combinations of 0.8–1 and 0.5–1 achieved separation efficiency of 96% and 94.5%, respectively. These two diverging T-junctions had significantly higher separation efficiencies when compared to regular and converging T-junctions. Results also revealed that over-reduction of upstream and downstream diameter ratios below 0.5 and 1, respectively, lead to declination in separation efficiency.

The present study is constrained for air and water as working fluids. Nevertheless, the results apply to other applications as well.

The proposed T-junction is intended to reduce excessive liquid carryovers and frequent plant shutdowns. Thus, lowering operational costs and enhancing separation efficiency.

Higher separation efficiency achieved by using diverging T-junction enabled reduced production downtimes and resulted in lower maintenance costs.

A novel T-junction design was proposed in this study with a separation efficiency of higher than 90%. High separation efficiency eliminates loss of time during shutdowns and lowers maintenance costs. Furthermore, limitations of this study were also addressed as the lower upstream and downstream diameter ratio does not always enhance separation efficiency.

In plethora of petroleum, chemical and heat transfer applications, T-junction is often used to partially separate gas from other fluids, to reduce work burden on other separating equipment. The abundance of liquid carryovers from the T-junction side arm is the cause of production downtime in terms of frequent tripping of downstream equipment train. Literature review revealed that regular and reduced T-junctions either have high peak liquid carryovers (PLCs) or the liquid appears early in the side arm [liquid carryover threshold (LCT)]. The purpose of this study is to harvest the useful features of regular and reduced T-junction and analyze diverging T-junction having upstream and downstream pipes.

Volume of fluid as a multiphase model, available in ANSYS Fluent, was used to simulate air–water slug flow in five diverging T-junctions for eight distinct velocity ratios. PLCs and LCT were chosen as key performance indices.

The results indicated that T (0.5–1) and (0.8–1) performed better as low liquid carryovers and high LCT were achieved having separation efficiencies of 96% and 94.5%, respectively. These two diverging T-junctions had significantly lower PLCs and high LCT when compared to other three T-junctions. Results showed that the sudden reduction in the side arm diameter results in high liquid carryovers and lower LCT. Low water and air superficial velocities tend to have low PLC and high LCT.

This study involved working fluids air and water but applies to other types of fluids as well.

The novel T-junction design introduced in this study has significantly higher LCT and lower PLC. This is an indication of higher phase separation performance as compared to other types of T-junctions. Because of lower liquid take-offs, there will be less frequent downstream equipment tripping resulting in lower maintenance costs. Empirical correlations presented in this study can predict fraction of gas and liquid in the side arm without having to repeat the experiment.

Maintenance costs and production downtime can be significantly reduced with the implication of diverging T-junction design.

The presented study revealed that the diameter ratio has a significant impact on PLC and LCT. It can be concluded that novel T-junction designs, T2 and T3, achieved high phase separation; therefore, it is favorable to use in the industry. Furthermore, a few limitations in terms of diameter ratio are also discussed in detail.

Interphase forces between the gas and liquid phases determine many phenomena in bubbly flow. For the interphase forces in a multiphase rotodynamic pump, the magnitude analysis was carried out within the framework of two-fluid model. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relative importance of various interphase forces on the mixed transport process, and the findings herein will be a base for the future study on the mechanism of the gas blockage phenomenon, which is the most challenging issue for such pumps.

Four types of interphase forces, i.e. drag force, lift force, virtual mass force and turbulent dispersion force (TDF) were taken into account. By comparing with the experiment in the respect of the head performance, the effectiveness of the numerical model was validated. In conditions of different inlet gas void fractions, bubble diameters and rotational speeds, the magnitude analyses were made for the interphase forces.

The results demonstrate that the TDF can be neglected in the running of the multiphase rotodynamic pump; the drag force is dominant in the impeller region and the outlet extended region. The sensitivity analyses of the bubble diameter and the rotational speed were also performed. It is found that larger bubble size is accompanied by smaller predicted drag but larger predicted lift and virtual mass, while the increase of the rotational speed can raise all the interphase forces mentioned above.

This paper has revealed the magnitude information and the relative importance of the interphase forces in a multiphase rotodynamic pump.

There is a growing need for safety analysis of chemical processes. Risk analysis techniques capable of evaluating dangerous transient conditions together with the reliability of the protective systems need to be devised. Analyses a flash separator used for the raw separation of a naphtha stream into its volatile and liquid constituents from the point of view of its safe operation by the use of the DYLAM methodology. Details a newly developed dynamic simulator of the transient behaviour of the separation operation. This simulator, coupled with the DYLAM algorithm, depicts at any moment the behaviour of the process stream in the drum and highlights the time thresholds which, if exceeded, may result in an accident owing to an uncontrolled evolution of the operation.

A numerical simulation of a two‐phase dilute flow (droplet‐gas mixture) is carried out by using a finite volume method based on Riemann solvers. The computational domain represents a one‐ended pipe with holes at its upper wall which lead into an enclosure. The aim of this study is to determine the parameters of such a flow. More specially, an analytical solution is compared with numerical results to assess the mass flow rates through the vents in the pipe. Inertia effects dominate the dynamic behaviour of droplets, which causes a non‐homogeneous flow in the cavity. The unsteady effects are also important, which makes isentropical calculation irrelevant and shows the necessity of the use of CFD tools to predict such flows. No relation can be extracted from the numerical results between the gas and the dispersed mass flow rates across the holes. But a linear variation law for the droplet mass flow versus the position of the holes is pointed out, which is independent of the incoming flow when the evaporating effects are quite low.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of droplet infiltration and sliding on the deposition size and make a uniform deposition by controlling the interaction between droplets, using the three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) based on the actual working condition.

D3Q19 Shan-Chen LB approach is developed and optimized based on the metal droplet deposition. The Carnahan-Starling equation of state and transition layers are introduced to maintain the greater stability and low pseudo velocities. In addition, an additional collision term is adopted to implement immersed moving boundary scheme to deal with no-slip boundaries on the front of the phase change.

The numerical results show that the new¬ incoming droplet wet and slide off the solidified surface and the rejection between droplets are the reasons for the deviation of the actual deposition length. The total length of the longitudinal section negatively correlates with the deposition distance. To improve the dimensional accuracy, the deposition distance and repulsion rate need to be guaranteed. The optimal deposition distance is found to have a negative linear correlation with wettability.

The numerical model developed in this paper will help predict the continuous metal droplet deposition and provide guidance for the selection of deposition distance.

To evaluate the efficiency of modifying epoxy resin using amine terminated poly(ethylene glycol) benzoate (ATPEGB) for improved toughness and to optimise the results of such a modification.

For effective toughening, various compositions were made by incorporating different concentrations of ATPEGB. The impact and adhesive strengths of the unmodified and modified epoxy networks were characterised.

The modification of epoxy resin using ATPEGB showed significant enhancement of impact and adhesive strengths over the unmodified one. The modification caused a chemical linkage between ATPEGB and resin which led not only to a phase separation but also to ensuring the intrinsically strong chemical bonds across the ATPEGB phase/resin matrix interface, which was the main cause to the improved impact and adhesive strengths. The optimum results were obtained at 12.5 phr (parts per hundred parts of epoxy resin) of modifier.

The modifier, ATPEGB, used in the present context was synthesised from poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) of molecular weight 600. Besides, it could be synthesised from PEG of molecular weight 200, 400, 4,000, 20,000 etc. In addition, the efficiency of modification of epoxy resin using these could also be studied.

The method developed provided a simple and practical solution to improving the toughness of cured epoxy.

The method for enhanced toughness of cured epoxy was novel and could find numerous applications in surface coating and adhesive.

Four series of nonionic copolymer surfactants have been prepared by the free radical copolymerizations of dioctyl itaconate (DOI) with dioxypropylated itaconic acid. Copolymerization reactions were carried out in solution at 70°C using 1mol. percent azopisisoputyronitrile as a free radical initiator. The copolymers were obtained by reprecipitation from petroleum ether (40‐60) and finaly dried in vacuum at 60°C. The structural features of these nonionic copolymer surfactants have been confirmed by IR and ¹HNMR spectra. The surface active properties of these polymers were compared and evaluated, including solubility, cloud point, surface properties, interfacial tension, foaming emulsification and biodegradability. Most of the products are good biodegradable surfactants; which manifested the importance of their application in pollution problems.

HAVING described in some detail the various soluble and insoluble bodies which, to one extent or another, have to be removed or in other ways eliminated from used oil, we shall now go on to consider the various processes which are commonly used for this purpose.