Estimation of gas wall shear stress in horizontal stratified gas‐liquid pipe flow

Abstract

Two-phase pipe flows occur in many industrial applications, such as condensers and evaporators, chemical processing equipment, nuclear reactors, and oil pipelines. A variety of basic mechanistic flow models for predicting the pressure gradient and liquid loading characteristics of these types of flows to assist in design calculations has emerged over the past two decades, especially for the stratified and slug flow regimes. These models generally rely on a number of basic assumptions and empirical closure equations. Possibly the most notable of these relates to the evaluation of interfacial shear stresses. However, one of the most important yet least discussed assumptions used in most of these models is that the phase wall shear stresses can be accurately estimated from correlations developed for single-phase pipe flows. The object of this article is to present measurements of gas wall shear up to locations in close proximity to the gas-liquid interface for a variety of interface conditions in developed flow, and to determine the effects of the interface on average gas wall friction factors. In this context the interface may be smooth, rippled or wavy.