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CFD and artificial neural network modeling of

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Article in International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer · October 2009

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 International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 850–856

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / i c h m t

CFD and artificial neural network modeling of two-phase flow pressure drop☆
Asghar Alizadehdakhel a, Masoud Rahimi a,⁎, Jafar Sanjari a, Ammar Abdulaziz Alsairafi b
a
CFD Research Center, Chemical Engineering Department, Razi University, Taghe Bostan, Kermanshah, Iran
b
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, Kuwait

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Available online 1 July 2009 A large number of experiments in a 2 cm diameter and 6 m length tube were carried out in order to study the
two-phase flow regimes and pressure drops in it. The two-phase flow in the experimental tube was modeled
Keywords: using commercial CFD code, Fluent 6.2. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with three inputs including gas
Two-phase flow and liquid velocities and tube slope was designed and trained to predict average pressure drop across the
Pressure drop tube. The comparison between CFD and ANN predictions of pressure drops with experimental measurements
CFD
shows that the CFD results are more accurate than the ANN evaluations for new conditions.
ANN
© 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Modeling

1. Introduction
Two-phase flow of gas and liquid in pipes frequently occurs in the
chemical and petroleum industries as well as natural gas transfer line.
While pressure losses in single-phase flow in pipes are accurately
modeled with familiar expressions such as the Bernoulli and Navier–
Stokes equations, accurate predictions of pressure loss in two-phase
flow have been proved to be more challenging because of added
complexities. The lower density and viscosity of the gas phase causes
it to flow at a higher velocity than the liquid phase, a phenomenon
known as slippage. Further complicating matters are the variety of
physical phase distributions that are characterized by flow regimes or
flow patterns. Detailed discussions of these patterns are given in the
literature [1].
In horizontal flows as gravity acts normally to flow direction, the
separation of flow occurs. The respective flow regimes are bubble flow,
stratified, stratified-wavy, plug, slug and annular flow.
In the vertical flows, the flow regimes can be listed as bubble, plug,
slug or churn, annular and wispy-annular flow. Many investigations
have been carried out to find the friction factor and consequently the
pressure drop across horizontal [2] and vertical [3] two-phase as well
as multiphase flows [4] in pipes.
Similar flow regimes are defined for two-phase flow in inclined
pipes. However, for inclined flows, the most prominent feature is a
preponderance of a stratified flow pattern in the downward inclined
pipe and a preponderance of an intermittent flow pattern (plug or
slug) in upward inclined pipe [5,6].
Many empirical correlations and mechanistic models have been
proposed to predict liquid holdup and pressure loss [7]. Almost in all
☆ Communicated by W.J. Minkowycz.
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: masoudrahimi@yahoo.com (M. Rahimi).
of these studies, the calculation began with prediction of the flow
pattern and then proposing an associated method of calculating the
liquid holdup. Consequently, the liquid holdup is used to determine
the two-phase friction factor. Comparative studies proved that these
models are inconsistently performed as flow conditions change.
Therefore, selecting of the most appropriate flow correlation is quite
important in this category of research.
Artificial neural networks are analytical tools that imitate the
neural aspect of the human brain, whereby learning is based on
experience and repetition rather than the application of rule-based
principles and formulas. An ANN consists of a layered network of
neurons (nodes), with each neuron connected to a large number of
others. The input signal to the network is passed among the neurons,
with each neuron calculating its own output using weighting
associated with connections. Learning is achieved by the adjustment
of the weights associated with inter-neuron connections. ANNs
provide capabilities such as learning, self-organization, generalization
and training; and are excellent for pattern recognition and trend
prediction for processes that are non-linear, poorly-understood, and/
or too complex for accurate first-principle mathematical modeling.
They seem ideal for applications to multiphase flow systems [8].
Cai et al. [9] applied the Kohonen self-organizing neural network to
identify flow regimes in horizontal air–water flow. Osman and Aggour
[10] developed a new model for identifying different flow regimes and
predicting the holdup of horizontal gas–liquid flow. His model was
based on three-layer back-propagation neural networks. Shippen and
Scott [11] presented another neural network model for prediction of
liquid holdup in a two-phase horizontal flow. Data obtained from five
independent studies were used in their modeling.
The shape of gas/liquid interface has a great importance in the
two-phase flow pressure drop in pipelines. Nigmatulin and Bonetto
[12] studied the shape of a Taylor bubble in a vertical downward slug
flow in a pipe. In their research, the phase distribution in the Taylor

0735-1933/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2009.05.005
 A. Alizadehdakhel et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 850–856 851

transiting from stratified flow to slug flow. Based on the experiments,

Nomenclature
numerical modeling of different flow patterns and their transitions
were performed using the VOF technique. The results of their
FSF continuum surface force, kg− 2 m− 3
computations were shown to match well with the measured data in
GVN gas velocity number
the experiments. Schepper et al. [16] used a VOF model to predict the
g gravity acceleration, ms− 2
two-phase co-current horizontal gas–liquid and vapor–liquid flow
LVN liquid velocity number
regimes in a tube. They compared the CFD-predicted results with a
MSE mean square error
Baker chart and concluded that all horizontal flow regimes appearing
P pressure, p
in the Baker chart could be simulated using existing CFD codes. In a
r2 correlation coefficient
recent study, Ekambara et al. [17] modeled the internal phase
S deformation tensor, ms− 2
distribution of a co-current air–water bubbly flow in a horizontal
t time, s
pipeline using the volume averaged multiphase flow equations. They
u velocity, ms− 1
argued that the model prediction shows better agreement with the
V superficial, ms− 1
experimental data with population balance than the constant bubble
size predictions.
In the present work, the CFD technique has been used to model
Greek letters
gas–liquid two-phase flow in an experimental tube. The CFD-
σ surface tension, Nm− 1
predicted average pressure drops have been compared with the
μ viscosity, kg m− 1 s− 1
experimental data. An artificial neural network with three inputs
ρ density, kg m− 3
including gas velocity number, liquid velocity number and tube slope
α volume fraction of gas phase in the cell
has been designed and trained to evaluate the pressure drop of
different layouts.

Subscripts 2. Experimental work

sg superficial, gas
sl superficial, liquid 2.1. Experimental aspects

Experiments were carried out in a 1.93 cm diameter and 6.0 m

bubble region was investigated by pictures and video films. They
presented a new view to the shape of the Taylor bubble which is quite
important for the hydrodynamics of the two-phase slug flow. Cole
et al. [13] believed that the best prediction performance was achieved
using models that considered the actual shape of the liquid phase in a
pipe. In their study, momentum balance models were tested against
reliable data for both holdup and pressure drop and some suggestions
were made for improvements of this approach for some annular and
stratified regimes.
In the recent years, due to progresses in the computer hardware
and software and consequent increase of the calculation speed, CFD
technique has been a powerful and effective tool to understand the
complex hydrodynamics of gas–liquid two-phase flows. Some
researchers found that the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model is suitable
for simulating interface among two or more fluids [14].
Some experiments were carried out by Guang-yao et al. [15] to
investigate the characteristics of an oil–gas flow in a large scale (with
the inner diameter D = 125 mm) horizontal pipe. Through the
analyses for the flow regime transition, they realized that there was
a critical superficial velocity of liquid phase for the flow regime
glass pipe. A schematic view of the horizontal setup of the
experimental rig is shown in Fig. 1. For eliminating the entrance and
exit effects, the pressure transducers were placed in a distance of 2 m
and 1 m from inlet and outlet, respectively. Pressure fluctuations were
recorded by two transducers with a frequency of 100 Hz. At each
experiment, the recorded pressure fluctuations were integrated over
120 s and the time-averaged values were reported as the inlet and
outlet pressures. A digital camera was used to record the two-phase
flow regimes in different conditions. The gas and liquid flow rates
were measured using two flowmeters while two digital transducers
were used to record inlet and outlet pressures. A 3.5 m3 surge drum
was placed after the compressor outlet stream to provide continuous
air flow inlet. The water, used as liquid working fluid, was colored with
a dark blue Nigrosine dye solution. This dye was chosen for two
reasons; first, no foam was generated by it during the experiments and
secondly a trace amount of this dye can change the water color to dark
blue without having any effect on the water physical properties. Water
is recycled to the inlet region after separation from air which was
vented to the atmosphere in the separator. The experiments were run
for different inlet superficial gas velocities (0 to 24 ms− 1), liquid

Fig. 1. Schematic view of the experimental setup.

852 A. Alizadehdakhel et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 850–856

For horizontal and vertical setups, turning first to Fig. 2(a), the
figure shows that the average pressure drop in the horizontal setup
increases by increasing of GVN while the slope of the curves increases
by increasing the LVN. In addition, variation of average pressure drop
with gas velocity has a similar trend for different liquid velocities.
Fig. 2(b) reveals that the pressure drops of vertical flow at LVN = 0 are
almost simillar to those of the horizontal flow. Opening the liquid flow
causes different pressure drop trends as compared with those of
horizontal setup. Here, in low gas flow rates the liquid weight is the
major cause of pressure drop and the pressure drop decreases by
increasing of the gas flow rate. By more increase in the gas flow rate,
the major cause of pressure drop shifts to the friction between the
fluids and wall and also the friction between the two phases.
Therefore, in high gas flow rates, the pressure drop increases by
increasing the gas flow.
Pressure drops at the two-phase inclined flows are shown in Fig. 3.
The figure indicates that the way that the pressure changes in
downward two-phase flow has a similar pattern with those of
horizontal flow and at steeper setups lower pressure drops were
obtained. In addition, lower differences between pressure drops
happened by increasing of the gas flow rate. This can be explained by
the fact that the major cause of difference in pressure drops at
different tube slopes is the differences in their liquid flow shapes.

Fig. 2. Average pressure drop for the vertical and horizontal setups: a) horizontal and
b) vertical.

velocities (0 to 1 ms− 1) and different slopes of the tube ranging from

90° (vertical upward) to −33° (inclined downward). A total number
of 665 experiments were carried out to measure the two-phase flow
pressure drops and flow regimes in different gas/liquid flow rates and
tube slopes.

2.2. Experimental results

As mentioned before, the experiments were carried out at different

inlet flow conditions and different tube slopes. In vertical and upward
inclined setups, the plug, slug and annular flow pattern were
observed. The stratified, wavy, slug and annular regimes were
observed in the horizontal and downward inclined layouts. The
measured pressure drops at vertical, horizontal and different tube
angles with the horizon are plotted in Figs. 2 and 3. In these figures,
the measured pressure drop was expressed at various gas and liquid
velocity numbers. These two well-known dimensionless liquid (LNG)
and gas (GVN) velocity numbers have been defined as follows:
 0:25  0:25
ρl ρl
LVN = Vsl and GVN = Vsg ð1Þ
σ:g σ:g

where Vsg and Vsl are gas and liquid superficial velocities, respectively.
ρl is the liquid density, g is the gravitational acceleration and σ is the Fig. 3. Average pressure drop for upward and downward two-phase flows, Pa m− 1:
surface tension. a) downward and b) upward.
 A. Alizadehdakhel et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 850–856 853

However, by increasing the downward slope, the liquid waves become fluids and the VOF model was employed. The VOF method relies on
smaller and the pressure drop decreases. Fig. 3(b) presents an the fact that two or more phases are not interpenetrating and for each
increasing trends in pressure drop by increasing the tube slope in additional phase the volume fraction of the phase must be added in
upward inclined layouts. The figure also reveals that the trend of the computation. In the VOF model, the sum of the volume fractions of
pressure changes in the upward flow becomes close to that of vertical all phases in each control volume is equal to one. In the modeling, the
setup by increasing of the slope. Another point in this figure is that in incompressible Navier–Stokes equations for velocity, u, and pressure,
contrast with downward flows, although the differences among p, are solved simultaneously. These equations are as follows [20]:
pressure drops of different slopes decrease by increasing of the
gasflow rate, a considerable differences remain among the pressure Continuity: j:u = 0 ð2Þ
drops in upward flows with different inclination angles. It can be
explaind by the fact that in the upward flows, even for high gas flow Au 1 1
rates, the gravitational force helps the formation of liquid waves, but Momentum: + j:ðuuÞ = − ½jp − j:ð2μSÞ + FSF ð3Þ
At ρ ρ
in the downward flows the gravitational force causes the vawe to
disapear. where, FSF is the continuum surface force (CSF) vector and S is the
deformation tensor given as follows:
3. CFD modeling
1 T

S= ju + ½ju : ð4Þ
3.1. Multiphase flow modeling 2

The commercial CFD package, FLUENT6.2 was used to model the In Eq. (3), the density (ρ) and viscosity (μ) of the fluid depend on
gas–liquid flow regimes and pressure drops in the tube. As far as the the volume fractions of each phase and they are calculated by the
interface between gas/liquid phases is important in predicting the following equations:
flow regime and pressure drop in the tube, applying the free surface
modeling is necessary. This is one of the challenging research areas for αρair μ air + ð1 − α Þρwater μ water
ρ = αρair + ð1 − α Þρwater and μ =
providing an efficient solver. Volume of Fluid (VOF) [18] and Levelset αρair + ð1 − α Þρwater
[19] approaches belong to two of the best possible implicit free surface ð5Þ
reconstruction methods, while particularly VOF is relatively simple to
treat topological changes of the interface and it is naturally where, α is the air volume fraction in the cell. The interface between
conservative. In the present work, water and air were used as working two phases was tracked by the volume fraction. Conservation of α can

Fig. 4. The comparison between experimental and CFD-predicted horizontal flows. a) GVN = 1.4 (Vsg = 0.2 ms− 1), LVN = 0.3 (Vsl = 0.05 ms− 1). b) GVN = 14.6 (Vsg = 2.38 ms− 1),
LVN = 0.3 (Vsl = 0.05 ms− 1). c) GVN = 87.3 (Vsg = 14.3 ms− 1), LVN = 2.6 (Vsl = 0.42 ms− 1).
854 A. Alizadehdakhel et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 850–856
be represented by the interface mass balance using the following
equation:
Aα
+ u:jα = 0:
At
The cell phase is gas where α = 1, while α = 0 means that the
whole volume has been occupied by the liquid. It can be concluded
that the gas/liquid interface exists in the regions that α lies between
zero and one.
3.2. Initial and boundary conditions
Uniform velocity inlets were employed as boundary conditions at
the gas and liquid inlets. An atmospheric pressure outlet condition
was fixed for the outlet to avoid difficulties with backflow at the outlet
of the tube. No-slip boundary condition was imposed at the tube walls.
The influence of the gravitational force on the flow was taken into
account. The initial volume fraction of water was set to zero for all
cases.
3.3. Solution strategy and convergence criterion
Because of the dynamic behavior of the two-phase flow, unsteady
state calculations with a time step of 0.001 s were carried out for all
Fig. 5. The comparison between experimental and CFD-predicted vertical flows. (a) GVN = 0.7 (Vsg = 0.1 ms− 1) LVN = 0.4 (Vsl = 0.07 ms− 1). (b) GVN = 5.6 (Vsg = 0.9 ms− 1)
LVN = 0.4 (Vsl = 0.07 ms− 1). (c) GVN = 23.7 ms− 1), LVN = 0.4 (Vsl = 0.07 ms− 1).
cases. The calculations were performed by combination of the PISO
algorithm for pressure–velocity coupling and a second order upwind
calculation scheme for the determination of momentum and volume
fraction. The convergence criterion was based on the residual value of
ð6Þ the calculated variables, namely mass, velocity components and
volume fraction. In the present calculations, the numerical computa-
tion was considered converged when the scaled residuals of the
different variables are lowered by four orders of magnitude.
3.4. Mesh geometry
Two different geometries were checked to model the two-phase
flow in the tube. In the first layout, a simple rectangle, in the size of the
testing section, was used to model the flow regime in the tube. In this
layout, the input edge was divided into the liquid inlet (in the lower
part) and the gas inlet (in the upper part). The obtained results from
this layout showed that although the predicted flow regimes are
similar to the experimental photographs, there are large differences
between predicted and experimental pressure drops. Therefore, this
modeling was not satisfactory. In the more accurate and consequently
more CPU time consuming modeling procedure the whole experi-
mental tube including the calming section (first 2 m tube before the
test section) which contains the gas–liquid inlet junction was
modeled. The predicted pressure values were found at the positions
of the experimental pressure transducers. These results were quite
 A. Alizadehdakhel et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 850–856 855

Table 1 4. ANN modeling

The comparison between experimental and CFD-predicted pressure drops.

GVN LVN ΔP/L (Pa m− 1) An artificial neural network was designed and trained to predict
Experimental Predicted Error % the average pressure drop of the two-phase flow in the studied tubes.
Vertical The input layer of the network consists of three variables (gas velocity
0.7 0.42 6961 6910 − 0.7 number, liquid velocity number and line slope) and the output layer
5.6 0.42 2605 2650 1.7 contains one variable (average pressure drop). In order to determine
145.2 0.42 1961 2061 5.1 the optimum number of neurons in the hidden layer, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and
Horizontal
20 numbers of neurons were used. Two-third of the total available
1.4 0.3 92 98 6.5 data (443 data sets) was used to train the network and the remainder
14.5 0.3 238 249 4.6 was used to validate the model results. Correlation coefficient (r2) and
145.2 0.3 1176 1113 − 5.4 mean square error (MSE) were used as the criterions for selecting the
best network architecture. A network with the higher values of r2 and
the lower values of MSE results more precise predictions. The MSE and
r2 values for different numbers of neurons in the hidden layer were
satisfactory when compared with the measured results. Therefore, obtained as shown in Table 2. The results from this table show that for
this strategy was used in the whole CFD modeling for different setups. the training set, by increasing the number of hidden nodes, the MSE
An investigation was done on the predicted pressure drops to find the decreases and r2 tends to increase. However, for the validation set, the
optimum grid size for the new geometry. Different sizes of the grid were network parameters got better as the number of neurons was
used to mesh the geometry and the predicted average pressure drops increased until it reached to fifteen hidden nodes. After that, there
were examined. Average pressure drops of 1419, 1632 and 1616 Pa m− 1 was no improvement in MSE. It can be explained by the fact that
were obtained for the horizontal layout with Vsl = 0.42 ms− 1 increasing of the nodes more than fifteen, the model over fits the
(LVN= 2.6) and Vsg = 14.3 ms− 1 (GVN=87.5) when the domain was training data and cannot generalize the rules to new data as well.
mesh respectively into 146,112, 280,662 and 438,898 control surfaces. Therefore, the ANN with fifteen hidden neurons was chosen as the
This examination showed that increasing of the number of control best network in this study.
volumes from 146,112 to 280,662 caused a significant difference in the In the present work, three different transfer functions (Log-
predicted pressure drops. However, employing more number of control Sigmoid, Hyperbolic-Tangent Sigmoid and Linear) were investigated
volumes up to 438,898 just had a negligible effect on the calculated to find the best one for the network with optimum number (fifteen) of
pressure drops. Therefore, to save CPU time, the second mesh layout was neurons in the hidden layer and a linear transfer function was
chosen as the optimum size of the control volumes. employed for the output layer transfer function. The obtained MSE
and r2 of validation set for this study are also given in Table 2. This
table shows that Log-Sigmoid transfer function gives better results
3.5. CFD modeling results than Hyperbolic-Tangent Sigmoid and Linear transfer function.
Therefore, a network with 15 nodes in the hidden layer, three inputs
Predicted flow regimes and pressure drops of horizontal and and one output, with Hyperbolic-Tangent Sigmoid and Linear transfer
vertical flows were compared with experimental photos as well as function for hidden and output layers was used, respectively.
measured pressure drops. The CFD modeling of horizontal flow was In Fig. 6, the measured pressure drops have been compared with
carried out at three different inlet conditions to model the flow the ANN and CFD-predicted results. Turning to Fig. 6(a), the figure
pattern of stratified-wavy, slug and annular regimes. Comparisons shows that the linear line fitted to ANN data is very close to the
between the predicted contour plots of liquid phase and experimental “predicted equals to experimental” line. In addition, the plotted data
photographs are shown in Fig. 4. As can be seen in the figure, there are very close to this line. In the other words, the results show that the
exist good agreements between predicted flow patterns and experi- presented ANN model can predict the pressure drop of the two-phase
mental photographs. In the horizontal annular flow of Fig. 4(c), due to flow at new conditions of various gas flow rate, liquid flow rate, and
the gravity effect, the liquid layer flowing near the lower wall of the line slope with a good precision. On the other hand, in order to
tube is thicker than that on the upper wall. compare the ANN predicted pressure drops with the CFD predictions,
For the vertical setup, three flow regimes of plug, slug and annular the CFD-predicted pressure drops of Table 1 and the corresponding
were modeled and presented in Fig. 5. Turning to Fig. 5(a), the values of experimental and ANN predictions are plotted in Fig. 6(b). As
parabolic head of the gas bubbles as well as the flow disturbance it can be seen in this figure, the CFD predictions are more accurate
under the bubbles is well predicted by CFD. The figure reveals that the than the ANN. However, regarding the level of accuracy and easy to
gas bubbles try to push the liquid upward and the both go toward the use advantage of ANN, the ANNs trained with the large number of
outlet. For the slug flow regime, Fig. 5(b), the same patterns happened
with larger bubbles. However, in this pattern the liquid tends to slide
down close to the tube wall and the downward sliding liquid Table 2
movement is more observable at this regime. Finally, in Fig. 5(c) due Modeling results obtained from different numbers of neurons and different transfer
functions of the hidden layer.
to high gas superficial velocity, the interaction between the gas and
liquid causes the liquid to go upward as thin layer adhered to the tube Model Transfer function Neurons in Training set Validation set
wall. In this annular flow regime, the gas phase flows in the center of no. of hidden layer the hidden layer MSE r2 MSE r2
the tube. In addition, there is a possibility of some liquid entrained in 1 Log-Sigmoid 3 0.991 0.9317 1.3205 0.9037
the gas phase, as illustrated in this figure. 2 Log-Sigmoid 6 0.173 0.9908 0.171 0.9880
In addition to visual validation of the flow regime, a comparison 3 Log-Sigmoid 9 0.164 0.9890 0.277 0.9885
4 Log-Sigmoid 12 0.0938 0.9938 0.161 0.9907
between the predicted and experimental time-averaged pressure
5 Log-Sigmoid 15 0.0253 0.9952 0.043 0.9931
drops is given in Table 1. From modeling results, no relationship can be 6 Log-Sigmoid 20 0.0219 0.9985 0.159 0.9889
found between the GVN, LVN and the prediction accuracy for the 7 Hyperbolic-Tangent 15 0.091 0.9899 0.121 0.9854
horizontal or vertical setup. However, the results show that the Sigmoid
pressure drop can be predicted with a good precision and the absolute 8 Linear 15 0.132 0.9792 0.541 0.9673

value of errors in all cases is less than 7%. Log  Sigmoid = 1

1 + e−x, Hyperbolic Tangent  Sigmoid = 2
ð1 + e − 2x Þ
− 1, Linear = x.
856 A. Alizadehdakhel et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 850–856
Fig. 6. The ANN and CFD modeling validations. a) ANN predicted and expected pressure
drops. b) CFD, ANN and experimental pressure drops.
available field data can supersede the common semi-empirical
methods for predicting the two-phase flow pressure drop in pipelines.
5. Conclusion
Experiments were carried out to investigate the two-phase flow
pressure drops and flow regimes in a tube. The plug, slug and annular
flow patterns were observed in the tube vertical setup. In addition, the
stratified-wavy, slug and annular regimes were recognized in the
horizontal tube. The experimental results showed that the average
pressure drop in vertical two-phase flows decreases with increasing
gas velocity at low gas flow rates, while at high gas flow rates it
increases with increasing gas velocity. The observed pressure drop
variation trends at different gas/liquid flow rates in downward
inclined tubes were similar to that of the horizontal setup. On the
other hand, the pressure drop behaviors across the tube in upward
inclined flows were similar to that of vertical flow. In the present
study, it has been found that CFD-predicted results can be sensitive to
model simplification. The CFD results showed that proper modeling of
the flow inlet geometry is quite important in the reliable prediction of
the two-phase flow behavior and simplifying the inlet geometries may
cause significant errors. The CFD predictions were compared with the
experimental measurements and corresponding photographs. The
results showed that by employing proper geometry, mesh and
boundary conditions, the gas–liquid two-phase flow pattern as well
as the pressure drop can be predicted by CFD with a good precision. An
ANN was designed and trained with the experimental data to predict
the average flow pressure drops at different conditions of liquid
velocity, gas velocity and line slope. The results showed that the
trained ANN can predict pressure drops of new conditions with a
reasonable precision. The comparison between the CFD results and
ANN predictions of two-phase flow pressure drops showed that for
new conditions, the CFD predictions are more accurate than the ANN
predictions. Regarding the easy to use advantage of the ANN method,
the ANNs trained with large numbers of available field data are good
alternatives for predicting the pressure drop of a two-phase flow in
pipelines. However, it is not possible to use the ANN for analyzing the
reasons why something happens in real observations.
Acknowledgment
The authors wish to express their thanks to the Iranian National
Gas Company—Kermanshah province for the financial support of this
work.
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