Friction Factor Of Two-phase Flow Research Articles

Experimental investigation of the impulse gas injection into liquid and the use of experimental data for verification of the HYDRA-IBRAE/LM thermohydraulic code

Experiments with impulse gas injection into model coolants, such as water or the Rose alloy, performed at the Novosibirsk Branch of the Nuclear Safety Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, are described. The test facility and the experimental conditions are presented in details. The dependence of coolant pressure on the injected gas flow and the time of injection was determined. The purpose of these experiments was to verify the physical models of thermohydraulic codes for calculation of the processes that could occur during the rupture of tubes of a steam generator with heavy liquid metal coolant or during fuel rod failure in water-cooled reactors. The experimental results were used for verification of the HYDRA-IBRAE/LM system thermohydraulic code developed at the Nuclear Safety Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. The models of gas bubble transportation in a vertical channel that are used in the code are described in detail. A two-phase flow pattern diagram and correlations for prediction of friction of bubbles and slugs as they float up in a vertical channel and of two-phase flow friction factor are presented. Based on the results of simulation of these experiments using the HYDRA-IBRAE/LM code, the arithmetic mean error in predicted pressures was calculated, and the predictions were analyzed considering the uncertainty in the input data, geometry of the test facility, and the error of the empirical correlation. The analysis revealed major factors having a considerable effect on the predictions. The recommendations are given on updating of the experimental results and improvement of the models used in the thermohydraulic code.

Effects of Two-Phase Flow Friction Factor Correlations on the Optimal Pressure Drop-Martinelli Parameter Pair in a Mini-Channel

Substantial research has been completed with more on-going on the flow pattern and heat transfer associated with two-phase flows. Discrepancies reported may have been as much as agreements, due to the different models, approaches, flow regimes, correlations, and new working fluids being utilized. This paper reports the outcome of a study to look at the effects of applying two different friction factor correlations on the simultaneous minimization of the pressure drop and Martinelli parameter under optimized flow rate and vapor quality, using genetic algorithm. The homogeneous model is assumed with ammonia as the working fluid, the coolant being environmentally friendly and having recently discovered as a potential replacement for the current refrigerants in micro and mini-channels. Results show that significant differences in the frictional pressure drop and Martinelli parameter arise due to the different correlations used, and this is only the outcome from two different correlations currently being considered by researchers in pressure drop analysis for two-phase flows in mini-channels. Thus, absolute agreement is indeed not possible between theoretical, experimental, and numerical work in view of the many different available correlations being utilized today with differences between 10 to 100 percent that has already been established.

Friction factor correlations for gas–liquid/liquid–liquid flows with drag-reducing polymers in horizontal pipes

In the present paper, two correlations have been developed to predict the effect of DRP on friction factor of two-phase flow for any pipe diameter. The correlations have been verified using published experimental results of DRP added to air–liquid annular flow and for oil–water flows with any flow pattern at the asymptotic state (maximum drag reduction). Such correlations are not available in literature and considered to be very useful in predicting the drag reduction using DRP and in understanding the most significant parameters that affecting the mechanism of drag reduction by polymers in multiphase flow.

Frictional pressure drop of gas liquid two-phase flow in pipes

Experiments of air water two-phase flow frictional pressure drop of vertical and horizontal smooth and relatively rough pipes were conducted, respectively. The result demonstrated that the frictional pressure drop increases with increasing relative roughness of the pipe. However, the influence of the relative roughness becomes more evident at higher vapour quality and higher mass flux. A new prediction model for frictional pressure drop of two-phase flow in pipes is proposed. The model includes a new definition of the Reynolds number and the friction factor of two-phase flow. The proposed model fits the presented experimental data very well, for vertical, horizontal, smooth and rough pipes. Therefore, the reproductive accuracy of the model is tested on the experimental data existing in the open literature and compared with the most common models. The statistical comparison, based on the Friedel’s Data-Bank containing of about 16,000 measured data, demonstrated that the proposed model is the best overall agreement with the data. The model was tested for a wide range of flow types, fluid systems, physical properties and geometrical parameters, typically encountered in industrial piping systems. Hence, calculating based on the new approach is sufficiently accurate for engineering purposes.

Friction factor improved correlations for laminar and turbulent gas–liquid flow in horizontal pipelines

We develop improved correlations for two-phase flow friction factor that consider the effect of the relative velocity of the phases, based on a database that includes 2560 gas–liquid flow experiments in horizontal pipes. The database includes a wide range of operational conditions and fluid properties for two-phase friction factor correlations. We classify the experiments by liquid holdup ranges to obtain composite analytical expressions for two-phase friction factor vs. the Reynolds number by fitting logistic dose curves to the experimental data with. We compute the liquid holdup values used to classify the experimental data using correlations proposed previously. The Reynolds number is based on the mixture velocity and the liquid kinematic viscosity. The Fanning friction factor for gas–liquid is defined in term of the mixture velocity and density. Additionally, we sort the experimental data by flow regime and obtain the two-phase friction factor improved correlations for dispersed bubble, slug, stratified and annular flow for different holdup ranges. We report error estimates for the predicted vs. measured friction factor together with standard deviation for each correlation. The accuracy of the correlations developed in this study is compared with that of other 21 correlations and models widely available in the specialized literature. Since different authors use different definitions for friction factors and Reynolds numbers, we present comparisons of the predicted pressure drop for each and every data point in the database. In most cases our correlations predict the pressure drop with much greater accuracy than those presented by previous authors.

The influence of film structure on the interfacial friction in annular two-phase flow under microgravity and normal gravity conditions

Results for the interfacial friction factor and relative interfacial roughness on the gas-liquid interface are reported for an air-water annular flow in a small inner diameter tube (9.53 mm i.d.). The film structure was obtained through processing the time trace signal of film thickness measurements using conductance probes. The interfacial friction factor and the wave height were altered through changing the gravity level and gas Reynolds number. It was found that the wave height decreased with increasing the gas Reynolds number. The wave height in microgravity is less than half of that in normal gravity, while the friction factor was about 10% smaller in microgravity than that in normal gravity. It was shown that the annular two-phase flow friction factor decreased less dramatically as the relative interfacial roughness decreased compared to the single-phase case. It is interesting to note that the interfacial shear stress values at microgravity were very close (or even larger than) those at normal gravity. This was attributed to the thicker substrate at microgravity.

Hydraulic Performance of Small Bending Radius Helical Coil-Pipe

Helical steam generator or helical heat exchanger is extensively used in high-temperature gas cooling reactor, fast breeder reactor, pressurized water reactor using in ship propulsion and areas of electro-power, chemical industry and petroleum industry. The purpose of this paper is to research the hydraulic performance of small bending radius helical coil-pipe used in HTR-10. Research for hydraulic performance of small bending radius helical pipe was carried out on the HTR-10 steam generator experimental facility. Based on the experimental results, it was confirmed that for helical pipe the critical Reynolds number (Re) is much greater than in a straight pipe and is a function of De. Formulas for Re of single-phase flow structure transition, friction coefficient of single-phase flow, and two-phase flow friction factor are obtained. Experience formulas of small bending radius helical pipe are recommended for design and research.

Hydraulic Performance of Small Bending Radius Helical Coil-Pipe.

Helical steam generator or helical heat exchanger is extensively used in high-temperature gas cooling reactor, fast breeder reactor, pressurized water reactor using in ship propulsion and areas of electro-power, chemical industry and petroleum industry. The purpose of this paper is to research the hydraulic performance of small bending radius helical coil-pipe used in HTR-10. Research for hydraulic performance of small bending radius helical pipe was carried out on the HTR-10 steam generator experimental facility. Based on the experimental results, it was confirmed that for helical pipe the critical Reynolds number (Re) is much greater than in a straight pipe and is a function of De. Formulas for Re of single-phase flow structure transition, friction coefficient of single-phase flow, and two-phase flow friction factor are obtained. Experience formulas of small bending radius helical pipe are recommended for design and research.