Numerical investigation of gas-liquid two-phase flow in horizontal pipe with orifice plate

Gas-liquid two-phase flow in horizontal or vertical pipeline significantly impacts on the transportation process. In fact, in the pipeline for regulating the flow flux or pressure, orifice plate and other current limiting device are frequently encountered. The flow behaviors of two-phase flow thus become more complicated in the pipeline with orifice plate. In order to explore the characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow in the pipeline accompanied by orifice plate, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation with volume of fluid (VOF) method and SST k - omega eddy viscosity model were imposed to probe the transient two-phase flow in a horizontal pipeline. The reliability of the numerical method was verified by a case of annular multiphase flow in a pipeline. In our research, two transient simulations related to different liquid volume ratios were carried out to explore the developments of the flow regimes. In addition, fluctuations of the area-average fluid pressures acting on the orifice plate surfaces were also monitored. The frequency characteristics of pressure pulsations were extracted via non-uniform fast Fourier transform (NUFFT). The main results show that the jet could be produced after the liquid passes through the orifice plate, and the liquid volume ratio has significant effects on the gas-liquid twophase flow behaviors, a higher ratio leads to a faster stable and fuller jet. The stability of jet could be reflected via the dimensionless velocity ratio. The gas-liquid two-phase flow in the pipe with orifice plate induces typical broadband excitation.