Numerical Simulation of the Transient Development of Slug Flow in Horizontal Pipes

2016 ◽  
Vol 819 ◽  
pp. 300-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahid Ibrahim Al-Hashimy ◽  
Hussain H. Al-Kayiem ◽  
Mohammad Shakir Nasif ◽  
Abdalellah. O. Mohmmed

Slug flow regime in two and multi-phase flow in pipes is a complicated flow phenomena representing challenge in the design of the piping system. In the present work, water/air two phase flow was modeled and simulated as 3 dimensional, transient, and incompressible flow using Volume of Fluid technique in STAR-CCM+ software. The simulation was conducted to predict and evaluate the air-water slug flow in a horizontal pipe with 0.16 m diameter and 7 m long. The superficial velocities for both phases were extracted from Baker chart slug zone. The results were validated against experimental bench marking referenced in Baker chart and the proposed VOF technique shows a good capability in simulating the development of the slug flow regime. This model could be utilized for simulation of various two phase flow regimes.

1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (12) ◽  
pp. 2595-2603
Author(s):  
Lothar Ebner ◽  
Marie Fialová

Two regions of instabilities in horizontal two-phase flow were detected. The first was found in the transition from slug to annular flow, the second between stratified and slug flow. The existence of oscillations between the slug and annular flows can explain the differences in the limitation of the slug flow in flow regime maps proposed by different authors. Coexistence of these two regimes is similar to bistable behaviour of some differential equation solutions.


Author(s):  
H. Y. Li ◽  
P. C. Lee ◽  
F. G. Tseng ◽  
Chin Pan

Boiling heat transfer and corresponding two-phase flow phenomena are of significant interest for the design of a compact evaporator. The present work investigates experimentally, using a high-speed digital CCD camera, the two-phase flow phenomena for boiling in a silicon-based, two parallel trapezoid microchannels, which were prepared by the combination of silicon bulk micro machining and Pyrex-silicon wafer bonding. Onset of nucleate boiling, bubbly flow, slug flow, and partial dry out slug flow are typically observed along the flow direction. The appearance of the partial dryout slug flow may degrade the nucleate boiling heat transfer in the microchannel. At a low flow rate, reversed vapor flow is observed. In such a flow pattern, liquid droplets are formed intermittently on the inner wall of top Pyrex glass due to vapor condensation. Moreover, the reversed vapor flow usually accompanies with large magnitude two-phase flow oscillations.


Author(s):  
Stamatis Kalogerakos ◽  
Mustapha Gourma ◽  
Chris Thompson

Severe limitations of the use of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics codes (CFD) arise when trying to simulate multiphase flow in long pipes due to time constraints. 1D codes for two-phase flow, based on two-fluid models, are fast but are known to be accurate only when the velocities are within the Kelvin-Helmholtz inviscid limit [1]. An alternative is to carry out a two-dimensional CFD simulation of a channel based on the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model. 2D CFD has a wider applicability range compared to 1D, it does not have the issue of ill-posedness and it also has better turbulence models built in. Again compared to 1D the 2D VOF model has a better interface description and wall treatment. In this paper a novel method is introduced that allows swift simulations of pipeline two-phase flow in the stratified and slug flow regime, by approximating the pipe as a channel and with a methodology that solves the problem of the interfacial velocity differences, inherent in the volume of fluid model. An initial validation using the wave growth problem has already been carried out [2]. Here a set consisting of 92 experimental cases in the slug flow regime has been simulated with 2D CFD, and the simulation results showed a good agreement with experimental results. Discussions in the paper include also the question of the range of applicability for 2D CFD, and the advantages and disadvantages compared to 3D CFD and also to 1D code based on the two-fluid model. Shear stresses are then extracted from the 2D CFD simulations and used to recalibrate the friction factors [3] used in the 1D code.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingche He ◽  
Liangming Pan ◽  
Luteng Zhang ◽  
Meiyue Yan ◽  
Wangtao Xu

Abstract Two-phase Flow is widely involved in reactor design and is directly relevant to reactor safety. However, the flow regime in narrow rectangular channels still needs further study because it has a considerable difference from tube and bundle channels. To investigate the two-phase flow regime and interfacial structure characteristics, the air-water experiment with an adiabatic vertical channel of 4 × 66 × 1800, 6 × 66 × 1800 mm have been conducted under atmosphere pressure condition. The impedance void meter was used to measure the global void fraction in narrow rectangular channels. A high-speed camera was used to record the profiles of the flow regime. The flow regime was identified by the random forest clustering algorithm based on a training sample. The profiles of different parameters, including void fraction, pressure loss at Z/D = 150, were analyzed in this paper. Furthermore, based on the parameters’ distribution, the regime transition criteria in narrow rectangular channels were discussed. It is shown that the transition from bubble to slug flow always occurred when the average void fraction is 0.17–0.2. The transition value is 0.57–0.62 when the slug Flow changes to the churn-turbulent Flow and 0.78–0.8 from churn-turbulent to annular Flow. The constant used in the Lockhart-Martinelli correlation is found to calculate the frictional pressure drop in a rectangular channel. Furthermore, the drift-model applied to the rectangular channel is verified.


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.


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