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Jyotirmay Banerjee
Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology
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also explained the formation of slug flow by the mm horizontal pipe. They captured flow patterns for
Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. They also proposed a various regimes of air-water two-phase flow
model for the frequency of slug initiation in 1977. In experimentally and established flow pattern map
1984, one of the early CFD models of turbulent based on the visualized images. They also analysed
stratified flow in a horizontal pipe was presented by the development of slug and transition to slug flow
Shoham and Taitel. Solutions for turbulent liquid from stratified flow using captured images.
flows were obtained in horizontal and slightly The objective of this work is to understand the
inclined pipes of 25.4 mm diameter. In 1986, the transition of flow patterns from stratified to slug flow
viscous Kelvin-Helmholtz analysis proposed by Lin by capturing images for a variety of superficial
and Hanratty generally gives better predictions for Reynolds numbers of liquid and gas phases. A flow
the onset of slug flow. In 1994, Lopez and Strand pattern map is also established by analysing the
conducted two experimental studies and measured captured images.
interfacial deformations together with spatial
distributions of velocity field in air–water stratified EXPERIMENTAL EQUIPMENT AND
flow in a horizontal or slightly inclined pipes. PROCEDURE
In 2007, Ghazar and Tang were measured local heat A schematic diagram of the overall experimental
transfer coefficients and flow parameters for air- setup for two phase flow measurements is shown in
water flow in a pipe in the horizontal and slightly Figure 1. The test section is a 25 mm internal
upward inclined (2◦, 5◦and 7◦) positions. They also diameter straight standard transparent acrylic pipe
proposed the flow regime map in terms of superficial with a length to diameter ratio of 320. The setup rests
Reynolds number of liquid and gas phases. In 2010, atop an 8 m-long two MS channels block supported
Vaze and Banerjee carried out an experimental by two pivoting foot and a stationary foot that
investigation on two-phase flow phenomenon in 25 incorporates a small electric screw jack.
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In order to develop various two-phase flow patterns calibrated orifice meter (low flow rate measurement).
(by controlling the flow rates of gas and liquid), a Rotameter and orifice meter are connected in parallel
two-phase gas and liquid flow mixer is used as shown and water flow is controlled by two ball valves. Once
in Figure 2. The mixer consists of a perforated the water passes through the rotameter or orifice
stainless steel tube (6.21 mm I.D.) inserted into the meter, it then passes through a 25 mm, gate valve that
liquid stream by means of a tee and a compression regulates the amount of flow that entered the test
fitting. The end of the stainless steel tube is silver- section. From this point, the water travels through a
soldered. Four holes (3 rows of 1.587 mm, 4 rows of 25 mm flexible hose, through a ball valve, and into
3.175 mm, and 8 rows of 3.968 mm) are positioned at the test section. Air at room temperature is pumped to
90◦ intervals around the perimeter of the tube, and the receiver tank using an ‘Atlas Corpo’ made screw
this pattern is repeated at fifteen equally spaced axial compressor of capacity 41.5 CFM and maximum
locations along the length of the stainless steel tube. pressure of 7.5 bars. In screw compressor, the air is
The two-phase flow leaving the mixer entered the drawn through filter and enters into compressor
transparent calming section. element through inlet valve. Air delivery from the
compressor receiver tank is controlled by pressure
regulator. The pressure regulator controls the
pressure of air going out and in turn the mass flow
rate. The pressure range of regulator is 0-16 bar. The
air is also filtered here, and condensate is removed in
a coalescing filter. The air flow is measured either by
a calibrated Flowtech made rotameter (high flow
measurement) whose measuring range is 1.9 to 19
CFM or calibrated orificemeter and regulated by a
needle valve. Air is delivered to the test section by
Fig. 2 Two-phase Gas and Liquid Flow Mixer flexible tubing. The water and air mixture is returned
The calming section served as a flow developing and to the reservoir, where it is separated and the water is
turbulence reduction device and flow pattern recycled.
observation section. One end of the calming section In this present experimental work, a total of 240 data
is connected to the test section and the other end of points are taken for horizontal position of the pipe by
the calming section is connected to the gas-liquid carefully coordinating the liquid and gas superficial
mixer. For the horizontal flow measurements, the test Reynolds number combinations. The flow is from left
section (see Figure 1) is carefully levelled to to right. Before starting the experimentation, the pipe
eliminate the effect of inclination on these is fully filled with water. The air bubbles coming
measurements. from the suction of the waterline are removed totally
The fluids used in the test loop are air and water. The by operating the valve of the bypass line.
water is distilled and stored in a 1000 litre rectangle
CHARECTERISTICS OF FLOW PATTERNS
polypropylene tank. Water drawn from the storage
FOR HORIZONTAL FLOW
tank is pumped using centrifugal pump made of
‘Grundfos’ having capacity 5 liters/sec and head The designation of flow pattern has been based
60m. The pump can withstand a temperature up to 60 largely on individual interpretation of visual
degree. From the storage tank, the water either passes observation. While some instrumental methods of
through a calibrated Flowtech made Rotameter (high analysis have been proposed (Hubbard and Dukler,
flow rate measurement) whose measuring range is Jones and Zuber 1975), these are not simple to use
250-2500 LPH with an accuracy of ±2 % or and have thus not found widespread application.
3
Furthermore, for many purposes of design a simple captured using high speed camera. The visualization
approximation to the location of the gas and liquid zone is at a length to hydraulic diameter ratio of 182
phases suffices as a description. For these reasons it to ensure the growth of fully developed flow patterns.
is important to specify as precisely as possible the
Table 1 Visualized Flow Pattern
features of the flow used to characterize the pattern
designated, and in this work the following apply: Flow Pattern Flow
• Stratified (S): Liquid flows at the bottom of the Photograph
Pattern ReSG ReSL
pipe with gas at the top, interface can either be Name
smooth (SS) or wavy (SW).
• Intermittent (I): In this flow pattern the Stratified 823 708
inventory of liquid in the pipe is non-uniformly
distributed axially. Plugs or slugs of liquid which
fill the pipe are separated by gas zones which Wavy 15140 708
contain a stratified liquid layer flowing along the
bottom of the pipe. The liquid may be aerated by
small bubbles which are concentrated toward the
Slug 823 4951
front of the liquid slug and the top of the pipe.
The intermittent pattern is usually subdivided into
slug (SL) and elongated bubble (EB) flow
patterns, but the distinction between them has not Plug 823 9880
been clearly defined in the past.
• Annular (A): The liquid flows as a film around
the pipe wall. A liquid film surrounds a core of Slug/
8650 3800
high velocity gas which may contain entrained Wavy
liquid droplets. The film at the bottom is normally
thicker than at the top depending on the flow rate Slug/
of liquid and gas. At the lowest gas rates at which 16500 8500
Bubbly
transition to annular from slug flow is observed,
most of the liquid flows at the bottom of the pipe.
The upper walls are intermittently wet by large Annular 29342 3532
aerated, unstable waves sweeping through the
pipe.
• Dispersed bubble (DB): The gas phase is Wavy/
distributed as discrete bubbles within a 20407 4950
Annular
continuous liquid phase. This is defined by the
condition where bubbles are first suspended in the
liquid or elongated bubbles which contact the top Slug/
of the pipe are destroyed. When this first happens Bubbly/ 16779 9218
most bubbles are located near the top of the pipe. Annular
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
• Visualised Flow-Patterns for Horizontal Flow Table 1 shows the different combinations of
Both air and water are brought together in a mixer superficial air Reynolds number and superficial water
and two phases then flow through the visualization Reynolds number for which the flow patterns are
section where various flow patterns are observed and discussed here. The experimentally captured flow
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patterns are shown in table1. The experimental image demarcated by thick lines for various regimes of two-
two
shows stratified flow pattern at air superficial phase flow is obtained experimentally
exper by Ghajar and
Reynolds number of 823 and water superficial su Tang (2007).
Reynolds number of 708.. The initial perturbations in
the mixing zone due to the turbulence are damped far
awayy and stratification is observed. A perfect
demarcation between air and water phase is
visualized with no pulsation of the interface between
the phases. Interface becomes wavy for a higher air
superficial Reynolds number of 15140 for the same
value of waterr superficial Reynolds number
(ReSL=708)) as in the case of stratified flow. There
still exists a clear demarcation between the air and
water phase.
perficial Reynolds number at 823,
Keeping the air superficial 823
when the water flow rate is increased such that the
superficial liquid Reynolds number reaches to 9880,
9880 Fig. 3 Flow Pattern Map
air pockets are observed in the continuous water In the present experiment, images are captured by
domain. These pockets are called plugs.
plugs These plugs varying the mass flow rate of air and water and the
are smooth in nature. No pulsations are observed. The type of flow pattern is identified. Around 240
plugs move adhering to the top surface of the tube. combinations of mass flow rates are considered. The
For the air superficial
uperficial Reynolds number of 8823 and visual inspections of images show the regime in
the water superficial Reynolds number of 4951, fast which the data points must fall in the flow pattern
moving slugs are observed. A slug consists of liquid map. These points are placed with suitable symbols
cylinder with air dispersion and elongated bubble. on the flow pattern
ttern map of Ghajar and Tang (2007) in
The slugs are different from plugs in its structure
structu Figure 3.
consisting of highly pulsating air bubbles followed by Table 2 Data Points for Flow Pattern Map
water cylinder. For certain values of liquid and gas Flow No. of Data Data Points Falling in
superficial Reynolds number, mixed type of flow Pattern Points Particular Flow Regime
pattern (combination of slug, wavy, bubbly and Stratified 36 36
annular) is observed. Captured images for slug/wavy, Wavy 16 12
slug/bubbly, wavy/annular and slug/bubbly/annular Slug 36 35
are shown in the Table1. Plug 28 20
• Flow Patterns Map for Horizontal Flow Slug/Wavy 22 16
Various flow patterns are visualized by varying mass Annular 30 26
flow rate of both the phases. These flow patterns
p are Wavy/
captured and the flow rates are measured. These flow 34 24
Annular
rates are converted to non-dimensional
dimensional Reynolds Slug/
number corresponding to superficial conditions. An Bubbly/ 38 36
uncertainty analysiss carried out following UKAS Annular
(2009) shows an overall uncertainty of 2.41%
2 with Table 2 shows number of data points considered for
95% of confidence for the estimation of o superficial capturing images in various flow regimes. The data
Reynolds number for both air and water phase in the points which fall in exact regimes
regime are also shown in
experiments. A flow pattern map showing zones table 2.This comparison shows the difference in our
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experimental results as compared to Ghajar and Tang. then increases to 2124. At this stage slug of liquid
The difference between our experimental results and cylinder and elongated bubble is observed first time
those obtained by Ghajar and Tang 2007, is found to (Figure 4 (b)). The approximate length of the
be maximum for slug/bubbly/annular and elongated bubble is observed to be 4.2m. For the
wavy/annular flow regime. This is due to difficulty in liquid Reynolds number of 2832 (Figure 4 (c)), the
distinguishing the flow patterns in the mixed flow slug length is observed to be of 2.3m and slug
regime. The differences in the wavy flow regime are frequency increase with increasing ReSL. Another
due to few points which are falling on the transition feature observed is the formation of air bubbles at the
line between wavy stratified and slug patterns. It is tail of a slug. As the liquid superficial Reynolds
very difficult to decide the type of flow in the number increases to 4242 (Figure 4 (d)), the
transition regimes. entrainment of air bubbles increases and slug length
reduces to 0.9 m. It is observed that for lower ReSL,
• Transition from Stratified to Slug Flow
slug flows smoothly but for higher ReSL, the slug
Transition from stratified flow to slug flow is a non- becomes pulsative.
instantaneous process. Numerous images are captured
CONCLUSION
at visualization section to show the transition of
stratified flow to slug flow pattern by varying liquid Various flow patterns are captured experimentally,
superficial Reynolds number and keeping the gas and the flow regime map for air–water two-phase
superficial Reynolds number constant. However, for flow is established. In addition, the images captured
discussion two gas superficial Reynolds numbers are enhance the understanding of transition to slug flow.
selected; lower (ReSG =823) and medium (ReSG Transition of stratified flow to slug flow is visualized
=2633). The liquid superficial Reynolds numbers for a variety of superficial Reynolds number, and the
vary from 708 to 4242. physics of development of flow in various regimes is
Air entry into the domain creates turbulence. After discussed.
the mixing zone, due to the density difference, the air NOMENCLATURE
and water phase spreads out. The completely
separated stratified flow is observed in the ReSL superficial liquid Reynolds number
visualization section as shown in Figure 4 (a). ReSG superficial gas Reynolds number
A perfect transition line between the two phases is
observed. The liquid superficial Reynolds number
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 4 Development of Slug for ReSG= 823 for ReSL (a) 708; (b) 2124; (c) 2832; (d) 4242.
6
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