The application of PIV technique for the investigation of oil-water two phase flow

A test system was developed for the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement in oil-water two phase flow. The device was applied to measure the velocity field of both stratified flow and dispersed flow in near-horizontal pipe whose diameter was 20 mm. The velocity distributions of the pipe at the conditions of different fluxes and different angles were obtained, which demonstrated that the velocity profiles of oil-water two phase flow were quite different from that of single-phase flow. There was remarkable velocity slip between oil and water under stratified flow condition. Under dispersed flow condition, because different diameter oil droplets had different lag velocities, the asymmetry of average oil droplet velocity profile was observed. It was also found that PIV technology had an extensive application prospect for the research of oil-water flow.