Visual technique for detection of gas–liquid two-phase flow regime in the airlift pump

Simplicity of manufacturing and high reliability of airlift pumps have promoted these pumps to be used in different industries, such as petrochemical and oil industries, especially in oil recovery from dead wells. One of the main parameters affecting the performance of these pumps is two-phase flow regime in the main pipe of the pump. In this research, experimental data are utilized to investigate the influence of the flow regimes on the performance of an airlift pump. The data are obtained for air–water two-phase flow in a vertical pipe with a diameter of d = 50 mm and an aspect ratio of L/d = 120. In this study, the gas liquid upward two-phase flow regime in the upriser pipe is experimentally analyzed by the image analysis technique. The gas phase velocity is measured in two-phase flow from the data obtained by the high-speed camera. The three main flow regimes namely slug, churn and annular are visually detected in the airlift pump. The results obtained by the series of experiments show an improvement in the performance of the airlift pump in a slug flow regime in the pumpʹs upriser pipe.