ESTIMATION OF LOCAL LIQUID FILM THICKNESS IN TWO-PHASE ANNULAR FLOW

Abstract

In many semi-empirical analyses of flow boiling heat transfer, an annular flow is often assumed as a model flow and the local liquid film thickness is a key parameter in the analysis. This work considers a simple electrical conductance technique to estimate the local liquid film thickness in two-phase annular flows. In this approach, many electrodes are mounted flush with the inner wall of the pipe. Voltage differences between two neighboring electrodes for concentric annular flows with various liquid film thicknesses are obtained before the main experiments and logged in a look-up table. For an actual application in the annual flow, voltage differences of neighboring electrodes are measured and then corresponding local film thicknesses are determined by the interpolation of the look-up table. Even though the proposed technique is quite simple and straightforward, the numerical and static phantom experiments support its usefulness.