scholarly journals Onset of intermittent flow: Visualization of flow structures

Author(s):  
Abderraouf Arabi ◽  
Yacine Salhi ◽  
Amina Bouderbal ◽  
Youcef Zenati ◽  
El-Khider Si-Ahmed ◽  
...  

The transition from stratified to intermittent air-water two-phase flow was investigated experimentally, by flow visualization and pressure drop signals analyses, in a 30 mm ID pipe. The intermittent flow’s onset was found to be mainly dependent on the liquid superficial velocity and the pipe diameter. Plug flow, Less Aerated Slug (LAS) or Highly Aerated Slug (HAS) flows could be obtained on the gas superficial velocity grounds. The available models, compared to experiments, could not predict adequately the intermittent flow onset. The appearance of liquid slugs was revealed by peaks in the pressure drop signal. Furthermore, it was shown that the available slug frequency correlations were not valid in the zone of the onset of intermittent flow.

Author(s):  
Eon Soo Lee ◽  
Carlos H. Hidrovo ◽  
Julie E. Steinbrenner ◽  
Fu-Min Wang ◽  
Sebastien Vigneron ◽  
...  

This experimental paper presents a study of gas-liquid two phase flow in rectangular channels of 500μm × 45μm and 23.7mm long with different wall conditions of hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface, in order to investigate the flow structures and the corresponding friction factors of simulated microchannels of PEMFC. The main flow in the channel is air and liquid water is injected at a single or several discrete locations in one side wall of the channel. The flow structure of liquid water in hydrophilic wall conditioned channel starts from wavy flow, develops to stable stratified film flow, and then transits to unstable fluctuating film flow, as the pressure drop and the flow velocity of air increase from around 10 kPa to over 100 kPa. The flow structure in hydrophobic channel develops from the slug flow to slug-and-film flow with increasing pressure drop and flow velocity. The pressure drop for single phase flow is measured for a base line study, and the fRe product is in close agreement with the theoretical value (fRe = 85) of the conventional laminar flow of aspect ratio 1:11. At the low range of water injection rate, the gas phase fRe product of the two phase flow based on the whole channel area was not substantially affected by the water introduction. However, as the water injection rate increases up to 100 μL/min, the gas phase fRe product based on the whole channel area deviates highly from the single phase theoretical value. The gas phase fRe product with the actual gas phase area corrected by the liquid phase film thickness agrees with the single phase theoretical value.


Author(s):  
Ahmad Fazeli ◽  
Ali Vatani

Two-phase flow pipelines are utilized in simultaneous transferring of liquid and gas from reservoir fields to production units and refineries. In order to obtain the hydraulic design of pipelines, pressure drop and liquid holdup were calculated following pipeline flow regime determination. Two semi-empirical and mechanistical models were used. Empirical models e.g. Beggs & Brill, 1973, are only applicable in certain situations were pipeline conditions are adaptable to the model; therefore we used the Taitel & Dukler, 1976, Baker et al., 1988, Petalas & Aziz, 1998, and Gomez et al., 1999, mechanistical models which are practical in more extensive conditions. The FLOPAT code was designed and utilized which is capable of the determining the physical properties of the fluid by either compositional or non-compositional (black oil) fluid models. It was challenged in various pipeline positions e. g. horizontal, vertical and inclined. Specification of the flow regime and also pressure drop and liquid holdup could precisely be calculated by mechanistical models. The flow regimes considered in the pipeline were: stratified, wavy & annular (Segregated Flow), plug & slug (Intermittent Flow) and bubble & mist (Distributive Flow). We also compared output results against the Stanford Multiphase Flow Database which were used by Petalas & Aziz, 1998, and the effect of the flow rate, pipeline diameter, inclination, temperature and pressure on the flow regime, liquid holdup and pressure drop were studied. The outputs (flow regime, pressure drop and liquid holdup) were comparable with the existing pipeline data. Moreover, by this comparison one may possibly suggest the more suitable model for usage in a certain pipeline.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bofeng Bai ◽  
Tiejun Wu ◽  
Liejin Guo ◽  
Xuejun Chen

Abstract The fluctuating pressure drop for air-water two-phase flow was measured in the vertical upward section of U-type tube with 0.05m I.D. The feature of the fluctuations was extracted by means of statistical and chaotic theories. The influence of liquid superficial velocity on the features was also investigated. The results showed that the mean, root mean square, fractal dimension of pressure drop fluctuations is function of flow regimes. The fractal dimension can be larger than 1.5 in annular flow with great liquid superficial velocity which is reported for the first time. Furthermore, the present paper provided a feasible solution, which the gas-liquid two-phase flow regimes can be recognized automatically and objectively on basis of the combination of the Counter Propagation Network (CPN) and the FFT coefficients of the differential pressure fluctuations. The recognition possibility is determined by the clustering results of the Kohonen layer in the CPN. With the presented test cases, the possibility can be greater than 90 percent for different liquid phase velocity.


2013 ◽  
Vol 746 ◽  
pp. 575-580
Author(s):  
Xue Min Liu ◽  
Zhou Hang Li ◽  
Yu Xin Wu ◽  
Jun Fu Lu

Aiming at the diameter range of boiler water wall tubes in practical engineering application, the air-water two phase flow pattern in horizontal tube was experimentally investigated in tubes with different inner diameters of 20mm and 8 mm under atmosphere condition. The stratified flow, wave flow, plug flow, slug flow, annular flow, bubbly flow and mist flow were observed in the tubes. Most of the experimental points agree well with the Baker flow pattern map when they appear in the map. With the experimental results, the range lines between the flow patterns were suggested for the tube of 20mm in inner diameter as well as 8mm. As the water superficial velocity increases, the annular flow transforms into mist flow at a decreasing air superficial velocity. The two phase flow patterns transition line is similar in tendency for different tubes. The slug flow transforms into annular flow at an increasing air superficial velocity as tube diameter decreases. The stratified flow transforms into slug flow at an increasing water superficial velocity as tube diameter decreases. The transition line between plug flow and slug flow is independent of tube diameter.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faraj Ben Rajeb ◽  
Syed Imtiaz ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Amer Aborig ◽  
Mohamed M. Awad ◽  
...  

Abstract Slug flow is one of the most common flow patterns in non-Newtonian two-phase flow in pipes. It is a very common occurrence in gas-liquid two-phase flow in the pipe. Usually, it is an unfavorable flow pattern due to its unsteady nature, intermittency as well as high pressure drop. The differences between slug flow and elongated bubble flow are not clear because usually these two types of flow combined under one flow category. In general, these two-phase flow regimes are commonly defined as intermittent flow. In the present study, pressure gradient, and wave behavior in slug flow have been investigated depending on experimental work. In addition, void fraction has been estimated regarding available superficial liquid and gas velocities. The experimental records of superficial velocities of gas and liquid for slug flow and other flow patterns is used to create flow regime map for the gas non-Newtonian flow system. The effect of investigated flow regime velocities for non-Newtonian/gas flow on pressure drop and void fraction is reported. Pressure drop has been discovered to be reduced in slug flow more than other flow patterns due to high shear thinning behavior.


2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar Zeghloul ◽  
Abdelwahid Azzi ◽  
Faiza Saidj ◽  
Abdelkader Messilem ◽  
Barry James Azzopardi

Pressure drop has been measured for upward single- and two-phase gas–liquid flow across an orifice in a vertical pipe. A conductance probe provided average void fraction upstream of the orifice. Six orifices with different apertures/thickness were mounted in turn in a 34 mm diameter transparent acrylic resin pipe. Gas and liquid superficial velocities of 0–4 m/s and 0.3–0.91 m/s, respectively, were studied. For single-phase flow, pressure drop, expressed as an Euler number, was seen to be independent of Reynolds number in turbulent region. The Euler number increased with decreasing the open area ratio/orifice thickness and increasing velocity. The pressure drop was well predicted by the correlation of Idel'chik et al. (1994, Handbook of Hydraulic Resistances, 3rd ed., CRC Press, Boca, Raton, FL.), which uses a form of Euler number. The corresponding two-phase flow pressure drop depends on the flow pattern. Decreasing open area ratio/orifice thickness increased the pressure drop. For a given liquid superficial velocity, the pressure drop increases with gas superficial velocity except for low open area ratio where this increase is followed by a decrease beyond a critical superficial gas velocity for the high liquid superficial velocities. Relevant correlations were assessed using the present data via a systematic statistical approach. The two-phase multiplier equations of Morris (1985, “Two-Phase Pressure Drop Across Valves and Orifice Plates,” European Two Phase Flow Group Meeting, Marchwood Engineering Laboratories, Southampton, UK.) and Simpson et al. (1983, “Two-Phase Flow Through Gate Valves and Orifice Plates,” International Conference on Physical Modelling of Multiphase Flow, Coventry, UK.) are the most reliable ones.


Author(s):  
M. K. Akbar ◽  
D. A. Plummer ◽  
S. M. Ghiaasiaan

Recent experimental data dealing with gas-liquid two-phase flow regimes and their transitions in microchannels with circular and near-circular cross-sections are reviewed and compared. It is shown that, for microchannels with hydraulic diameters close to 1 mm, the available data are in good agreement. These data are used as the basis for the development of a simple Weber number-based flow regime map that divides the entire flow map into four zones: a surface tension dominated zone including bubbly and plug flow patterns; an inertia dominated zone representing the annular flow regime; a dispersed/churn flow zone; and a transition zone that consists of other intermittent flow patterns. Comparison is als o made with the limited available data representing channels with slightly larger hydraulic diameters or different cross-sectional geometries, and the effects of channel cross-sectional geometry and size are examined and discussed. The areas in need of further systematic experimental investigation are identified.


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