Investigation of the Effect of Pipeline Size on the Cross Flow Injection Process

Abstract

Injection pumps constitute an essential component for many industrial applications. The main focus of this study is to predict the effect of the size of the pipeline on the cross flow injection process. A test-rig was designed, built and equipped with three different pipelines, 1½", ¾" and ½" diameters. Comparison was made under constant line pressure of 40-bar and line flow rate of 5 liter/min, with a fixed injection pump rotational speed of 100 rpm. The main parameter tested was the injection dose capacity at different pump displacements. Cross flow mixing process is also theoretically studied using 3D-CFD analysis to show the injection cross flow behavior for the same geometry and parameters used for experimental test. Results show that increasing the size of the pipeline increases injection pump doses ability. This effect is insignificant at lower injection pump displacements, while the effect of the size of the pipeline becomes dominant when increasing the displacement. By changing the size of the pipeline from ½" to 1½" diameter injection pump dose capacity increases by 3.24% at 100% pump displacement. Selecting larger pipe sizes for injection ports is recommended whenever possible.