Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Two-phase flows are found in a wide range of engineering applications and industries. For example; the design of steam generators, heat exchanges, refrigeration systems, and pipelines for gas and oil mixtures transport requires detailed two-phase heat transfer and pressure drop analyses. The complex nature of the two-phase flow, which is characterized by the existence of the deformable interfaces, turbulence, phase interaction, and compressibility of the gas phase, makes it difficult to obtain reliable flow models and consequently reliable solutions for many industrial problems. These complexities are aggravated when the two-phase passes through complex geometries such as valves, orifices, elbows and sudden area change that commonly exists in the multiphase systems. Additional complexity arise when the two-phase passes through multiple piping components located close to each other. Failures in many energy and oil and gas transportation systems occur in the developing two-phase flow regions in such geometries due to variety of degradation mechanisms such as flow accelerated corrosion, cavitation erosion, erosion corrosion, and liquid impact erosion. This severely affects both safety and reliability of these systems and sometime leads to fatalities and huge economic loss. These failure modes found to strongly depend on both heat and mass transfer characteristics which are affected by the two-phase flow redistribution, phase separation and the flow instabilities generated within the geometry of the flow passage. Currently, developing two-phase flow in these complex geometries is not fully understood. Therefore, this research program aims at understanding the fundamental behaviour of developing two-phase flow through complex geometries, especially through multiple piping components with close proximity to one another. The outcomes of this proposed research will result in developing reliable mechanistic models and strategies to predict, monitor or mitigate pertinent industrial problems. This will significantly enhance the sustainability of multiphase systems and will directly benefit the Canadian economy. In addition, with the scarce expertise in the area of multiphase flow, the provision of HQPs, with such unique expertise to the Canadian industry and academia is the applicant’s ultimate objective behind his research program.