Droplet entrainment correlation in annular two-phase flow

Abstract

The droplet entrainment from a liquid film by gas flow is important to mass, momentum, and energy transfer in annular two-phase flow. The amount of entrainment can significantly affect occurrences of the dryout and post-dryout heat flux as well as the rewetting phenomena of a hot dry surface. In view of these, a correlation for the amount of entrained liquid in annular flow has been developed from a simple model and experimental data. There are basically two different regions of entrainment, namely, the entrance and quasi-equilibrium regions. The correlation for the equilibrium region is expressed in terms of the dimensionless gas flux, diameter, and total liquid Reynolds number. The entrance effect is taken into account by an exponential relaxation function. It has been shown that this new model can satisfactorily correlate wide ranges of experimental data for water. Furthermore, the necessary distance for the development of entrainment is identified. These correlations, therefore, can supply accurate information on entrainment which have not been available previously.