Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Mixing Phenomena in Double-Tee Junctions

• Main Authors: Luka Grbčić, Lado Kranjčević, Ivana Lučin, Zoran Čarija
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-06-01
• Series: Water
• Subjects: mixing phenomena; complete mixing; bulk mixing; double-Tee junctions; multiphase model; passive scalar model; Schmidt number
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/6/1198

This work investigates mixing phenomena in a pressurized pipe system with two sequential Tee junctions and experiments are conducted for a range of different inlet flow ratios, varying distances between Tee junctions and two pipe branching configurations. Additionally, obtained experimental results are compared with results from previous studies by different authors and are used to validate the numerical model using the open source computational fluid dynamics toolbox OpenFOAM. Two different numerical approaches are used—Passive scalar model and Multiphase model. It is found that both numerical models produce similar results and that they are both greatly dependent on the turbulent Schmidt number. After the calibration procedure, both models provided good results for all investigated flow ratios, double-Tee junction distances, and pipe branching configurations, therefore both numerical models can be applied for a wide range of pipe networks configurations, but passive scalar model is the viable choice due to its much higher computational efficiency. Obtained results also describe the relationship between the double-Tee distances and complete mixing occurrence.