Application of Hyperbolicity Breaking Model to the Prediction of Post-dryout Flow Regime Transition from Inverted Annular Flow

Abstract

The post-dryout flow regime transition criterion from inverted annular flow (IAF) to agitated inverted annular flow (AIAF) is suggested based on the hyperbolicity breaking concept. The hyperbolicity breaking represents a bifurcation point where a sudden flow transition occurs. The hyperbolicity breaking concept is applied to describe the flow regime transition from IAF to AIAF by the growth of disturbance on liquid core surface. The resultant correlation has the similar form to Takenaka's empirical one. To validate the proposed model, it is applied to predict Takenaka's experimental results using R-113 refrigerant with four different tube diameters of 3, 5, 7 and 10mm. The proposed model gives accurate predictions for the tube diameters of 7 and 10mm. As the tube diameter decreases, the differences between the predictions and the experimental results slightly increase. The flow regime transition from AIAF to dispersed flow (DF) is described by the drift flux model. It is shown that the transition criterion can be well predicted if the droplet sizes in dispersed flow are evaluated appropriately.