Experimental investigation of the onsets of gas and liquid entrainment from a small branch mounted on an inclined wall

Abstract

The phenomena of the onsets of liquid entrainment and gas entrainment were investigated experimentally for the case of a flat plane with a circular outlet branch of diameter d (=6.35 mm) at the plane centre. This flat plane was situated in a large tank containing a stratified mixture of air and water under pressure (317 kPa for most experiments and 520 kPa for a few experiments) and at room temperature. The plane was inclined through various angles ( θ) in increments of 30°, from the outlet branch orientation being vertically upward through the horizontal to vertically downward. For both onsets the vertical distance between the centre of the outlet branch and the undisturbed gas–liquid interface ( h) was measured for various angles of inclination and Froude numbers. Both onsets were observed visually through a large viewing part of the test section. It was found that for both onsets there is a range of inclination angles where the onset h depended on θ and a range where the onset h essentially did not depend on θ. The data were correlated in terms of onset h/ d, Froude number, and θ where there was dependence of onset h on the angle of inclination.