Flow pattern and particle contamination in fluid flow through mitre bend

Abstract

Flow pattern exists on miniscule to astrophysical scales, it is difficult to understand the fluid flow behavior and predict how they will react especially when involving particle contamination in those fluid flows. Recently, many research have investigated the relationship between flow pattern and behavior with a particle deposition through numerous types of bend but not too concerned about the flow pattern with different types of particle distributions. Therefore, this paper presents the investigation on the flow pattern of particle contamination in fluid flow through square mitre bend with different types of particles. The aim of this article is to establish the flow behaviour through square mitre bend with the effect of the particles and to study the relationship between flow pattern with related parameters such as flow velocity for different types of particles. This research was performed on flow through 90° square mitre bend in horizontal to vertical orientation and water was used as flow medium. Flow pattern is caused by three types of particles, namely Sand, Nylon and Polyethylene. Besides, particle size was in the range of 50μm to 200μm and was categorized as a Particle 1 (Sand A), Particle 2 (Sand B), Particle 3 (Nylon), Particle 4 (Polyethylene Solid) and Particle 5 (Polyethylene Powder). All experimental results were compared with those form simulation technique. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used to determine velocity and pattern field of the flow. Then, High Speed Camera (HSC) was also used to observe the particle concentration through the pipe bend. Meanwhile, simulation results were illustrated by using commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Software, i.e ANSYS FLUENT. The results indicate that the flow pattern was influenced by particles and bending conditions, while different particle properties affects particle concentration and distributions. Henceforth, fine particles tend to be fully suspended owing to their small volume and lightweight condition, but coarse particles are easily separated from the liquid.