An Intermittent Flow Structure in Airlift Pump by Using an Annular Venturi Injector

Abstract

An annular venturi injector (AVI) was proposed to form an intermittent flow structure in airlift pump for a good pump performance. Experiments were conducted to investigate the performance of the airlift pump with this AVI by comparing with pump performance with traditional injectors, at a series of air flow rates . It was found that airlift pump with AVI had higher flow rates of output liquid and particle, than those with the traditional injectors. This AVI promoted the gas core to collapse and formed an intermittent flow structure in rising pipe. For this intermittent structure, its slug length, firstly increased to a maximal value with increasing gas flow rate and then remained stable even under a high gas flow rate, while its slug frequency decreased with gas flow rate and then remained to a minimal value under a high gas flow rate.

Keywords

• airlift pump; venturi injector; flow structure; three-phase flow.