Investigation on two-phase flow in small diameter non-circular channels under low

and normal gravity

Gerrit Wölk, Michael Dreyer, and Hans J. Rath

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 458, 785 (1999);

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.57653
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apc/458/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics
 Investigation on T w o - P h a s e Flow in Small D i a m e t e r
N o n - C i r c u l a r C h a n n e l s under Low and N o r m a l Gravity

Gerrit W61k, Michael Dreyer, and Hans J. Rath

Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), University of Bremen, Am Fallturm,
28359 Bremen, Germany, (-t-49)421-218-4191, woelk@zarm.uni-bremen.de

Abstract. Experiments have been performed for two-phase air-water flow under terrestrial (lg0 vertical
upwards) and low gravity (#9o) conditions through circular and non-circular channels with different cross-
section and equivalent (hydraulic) diameter of dh ~ 6 ram. Under lg0-condition three of the four basic
flow patterns and under #g0-condition two of the four basic flow patterns were observed depending on
the liquid and gas superficial velocity. The transion from dispersed bubble to slug flow (lg0 and ~g0) and
to churn flow (lg0) is discussed. The influence of the channel geometry on the flow pattern transition as
well as the influence caused by the superficial liquid and gas velocity and by the pipe diameter is shown
for both low and normal gravity condition.

INTRODUCTION

Prediction of the flow pattern in a gas/liquid flow is one of the most important problems in two-phase flow.
For the optimization of the design and the operation of two-phase flow systems, especially concerning the
pressure drop and thermodynamical quantities, there is a need to predict accurately the existing flow patterns.
In this investigation, two-phase air-water flow through circular and non-circular channels with an equivalent
(hydraulic) diameter of dh ~ 6 mm under low (#g0) and normal gravity (lg0-vertical upwards) is studied.
The equivalent diameter lies in the typically range used for plate-fin heat exchangers ( 1 . . . 10 mm).
Designing a heat transfer system, one has to take into consideration different possible geometries. Non-circular
channels are suited very well for heat transfer applications such as plate-fin compact heat exchangers, since
the ratio between circumference and cross-section area is more advantageous as for circular tubes which
allows to increase the heat transfer rates. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of the channel
geometry (circular and non-circular) on the transition between two different flow patterns under terrestrial
condition as well as under low gravity. The experiments under tow gravity were performed in a free falling
drop capsule at the drop tower in Bremen. Considering the single-phase flow in non-circular channels a
so-called turbulent secondary flow occurs (Nikuradse, 1933) having a considerable influence on the two-phase
flow patterns in non-circular channels. Experimental and theoretical studies have been performed up to now
mainly for geometries with circular cross-section and mainly with a diameter larger than 9 mm. To compare
tim results regarding the non-circular channels we also studied the flow pattern transition in the circular tube.
The comparison of the geometries could improve the understanding of the turbulent secondary flow influence
on the flow pattern transition and the comparison of different acceleration levels (lg0 and #g0) could give a
better knowledge of the gravity influence on two-phase flow.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

The experiment facility was developed for microgravity experiments at the drop tower in Bremen as well as
for experiments under terrestrial condition and consists of a closed liquid flow loop subdivided in two parallel
test section regions, two gas flow loops, two mixing systems, two pump units, a separator unit, an electronic
control unit and a data acquisition system. The air/water flow is recorded by video cameras using a shutter

CP458, Space Technologyand Applications International Forum- 1999

edited by Mohamed S. EI-Genk
© 1999 The American Institute of Physics 1-56396-846-0/99/$15.00
785
 I

pump
unit
(a) (b)
F I G U R E 1. (a) Experiment facility and (b) schematic representation of one of the two air-water loops.

speed of 1/2000 sec. Each test section has a length of 920 mm and a hydraulic diameter of dh ~ 6 mm. The
absolute pressure inside the tube/channel is measured at a spezific distance L1 = 465 mm behind the mixing
unit. A presentation of the experiment facility (drop capsule and electronic control unit) is shown in Figure
la and a schematic representation of one of the two air-water loops is shown in Figure lb. The working fluids
are air and de-ionized water with minutes amounts of salt dissolved in it for measuring the void fraction. A
full description of the experiment facility is given in WSlk et al. (1998).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The flow patterns were discerned based on visual observation of a video tape replay. Under normal gravity
in the regime studied three different flow patterns were identified and named as dispersed bubble flow, slug
flow and churn flow following the flow pattern definition of Hewitt and Hall-Taylor (1970). These basic flow
patterns are illustrated in Figure 2 for the rectangular channel. Under low gravity two different flow patterns
were identified and named as dispersed bubble flow and slug flow following the definition of Dukler et aI.
(1988).
The flow pattern map obtained from our experiments for an air-water two-phase flow under normal and low
gravity is displayed exemplarily for the circular tube (dh = 5.9 ram) in Figures 3a and 4a and for the rhombic
----* flow direction

(b)

(c)
F I G U R E 2. Flow patterns in vertical upwards two-phase flow (lg0) in a rectangular channel: (a) dispersed
bubble flow, (b) slug flow and (c) churn flow.

786
 4.0
o °
4.0 , /
3.0
8 8 888888~O 30 I o . spe b,,b e,ow I ,
OOO
2.0
"high" flow rate o ooJ
~ ~ ~O ~ O cburnfow I 2.0
" .......... ;;o o
W
,.,."""" A A A A O O0000 middle flowrate ~ l<f~ ;.~O~OO~O
O ~ 1 0 churnflow i
::::)~ 1.0 .,."" a A A A & 00~ O ~ 1.0
0.9
0.8
0.9
0.8 , "ow"- ; 0w-r- , e; - ~o - ~= l . e ' ~ ' A • g ~ O O 0 0 OOO OO~.
0.7 07
0.6 0.6 p~AA a~,~a,~, a ~IOOClD0~OO O O
0.5 0.5 .'f" ----la & A~i 4~X100041:,0 O 0
..'" a slug flow a A • 0
0.4 • , ...... I i| i i i i i = 0.4 ... ,I ~ T ~7~.. ".,"lt .~.°.**. ....
0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10
Ues[m/s] Ue~[m/sl
(a) (b)
FIGURE 3. Flow pattern map for a lg0 vertical upwards air-water two-phase flow together with theoretical
transition criteria (dotted line according to W(ilk et al. (1998), dashed line - eq. (1) and solid line according
to Jayanti and Hewitt (1992)): (a) in a circular tube with dh = 5.9 ram, 23 °C and (b) in a rhombic channel
with dh = 6.3 mm, 21 °C.

channel (dh = 6.3 ram) in Figures 3b and 4b, respectively. The angle of spread of the rhombic channel is
2~ = 60°. For the axis of the figures we use the superficial gas velocity UGs and the superficial liquid velocity
ULS. The solid symbols in Figure 3 denote transition flow patterns with the characteristic of two basic flow
patterns. The curves in the figures display models for the transition from one flow regime to another flow
regime.
The experiments showed for the transition from dispersed bubble flow to a different flow regime that the
liquid flow rate can be subdivided for both 190 and #g0 condition into three domains of "low", "middle"
and "high" liquid flow rate displayed exemplarily for the flow pattern map of the rhomic channel in Figure
3b. This division of the liquid flow rate in three liquid domains could be done qualitatively for all four flow
pattern maps. In the following we will discuss the transition from dispersed bubble flow to a different flow
regime separately for each flow rate domain.

"High" Liquid Flow Rate Domain

The transition from dispersed bubble to slug flow as well as to churn flow occurs mainly due to agglomeration
and coalescence of smaller bubbles to form larger ones. Additionally, a second criterion for the transition
from dispersed bubble flow consists in the bubble breakup caused by turbulent fluctuation in the tube. The
turbulent "breakup" forces tend to break larger bubbles and disperse them uniformly within the tube. For
the rhombic channel a shift of the transition region in the "high" liquid flow rate domain to a higher value
for the void fraction could be discerned for both lg0 and #g0. We assume that the high turbulent motion
4.0 4.0 i
j / /
3.0 o dispersed bubble flow I 3.0 o dispersed bubble flow I I
o°~
g
/
2.0 o ~ O Of & A /
2.0
o o o/Oo o°
o .o.~./
.oo.~" o oooo~ ° t,~
oO~,.." & o/&
1.0
o°,.o°°°°°°°°°o,.°,oO°" A A
~ 1,0
o o.o.~,,
0.9 0.9 o.~4~
0.8 08 A
0.7 07
I n slugflew ]
0.6 0.6
05 05
0.4 . . . . . . . . I 0,4 , , • , , , ,,I
0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10
Uas [m/sl UG5 [m/s]

(a/ (b)
F I G U R E 4. Flow pattern map for an air-water two-phase flow under low gravity together with theoretical
transition criteria (dotted line- eq. (11) and dashed line - eq. (1)): (a) in a circular tube with dh = 5.9 mm,
22 °C and (b) in a rhombic channel with dh = 6.3 ram, 22 °C.

787
and thus the high turbulent energy in the volume flow disperses the bubbles and has an additional influence on
the transition void fraction value. This influence increases with increasing liquid volume flow rate. Referring
to lg0 vertical upwards experiments (McQuillan and Whalley, 1985), there also exists a shift in the void
fraction value to higher values for circular tubes. Thus the drift flux model with a constant void fraction of
for example a = 0.3 for lg0 vertical upwards two-phase flow underpredicts the transition in the "high" liquid
flow rate domain as shown in Figure 3b.

"Middle" Liquid Flow Rate Domain

In the literature, the drift flux model with a constant void fraction value is used to predict the transition
from dispersed bubble to slug flow under low gravity (Colin et al., 1996) and from dispersed bubble to slug
or churn flow under terrestrial condition (Mishima and Hibiki, 1996). The drift-flux model is defined as:

UGs
uc - -- - Co ( U c s + U L s ) + VG~, (1)

where u c is the true gas velocity, a is the channel average void fraction, Co is the distribution parameter
depending on the channel geometry and Vcu is the drift velocity, respectively. The distribution factor for the
circular tube is defined as Co = 1.2 - 0.2 pa~7-~L and for the rhombic channel as Co = 1.5 - 0.35 pox/~7~.
The drift velocity for bubble flow is given by Mishima and Hibiki (1996) as

VGU (l--ol)3/2V~(~O(PL2--PG))l/4
= -- , (2)
PL
where PG is the gas density, PL is the liquid density, a is the surface tension of the liquid and g is the terrestrial
gravity, respectively. The dashed curves in Figures 3 and 4 denotes the transitions criterion predicted by
the drift flux model and from the figures it can be observed that the prediction of the transition with the
drift flux model is valid only for the "middle" liquid flow rate domain. The evaluation of the experiments for
the small tube/channel diameter (investigated here) yields that dispersed bubble flow becomes unstable in
the "middle" flow rate domain under terrestrial condition at a void fraction value of ~ = 0.3 and under low
gravity condition at a void fraction value of c~ = 0.33.

"Low" Liquid Flow Rate Domain

Closer inspection of the "low" liquid flow rate domain shows for both lg0 and #g0-conditions that for a given
liquid flow rate, the transition occurs at a lower gas flow"rate as the drift flux model predicts emphasizing the
existence of an influence for the transition, which could not be described with the drift flux model. Under
terrestrial condition an empirical correlation depending on the superficial liquid and gas velocity is given by
W61k et al. (1998) showing good agreement with experiments. A correction factor was formulated to adopt
the empirical correlation for non-circular channels as well as for large tube diameters. The results of the
empirical corellation are shown for the circular tube and rhombic channel as dotted lines in Figure 3.
In the following a scaling is proposed to describe the transition from dispersed bubble flow in the "low" liquid
flow rate domain under low gravity. Therefore we first evaluate a "minimum" total free energy flux Eo',min
which is necessary to breakup a discrete gas bubble flowing in the liquid. Using the Euler theorem (Ono and
Kondo, 1960) for calculating the free energy F of one discrete gas bubble with the assumption of constant
temperature and no chemical reaction, one could approximate the free energy as

F = CAB - ApVB, (3)

where the first term on the right denotes the free energy for the change in surface area and the second term
represents the energy which is obtained with changing the volume of the bubble. With the assumption of
having a discrete gas bubble with a spherical shape and a diameter ds, one can calculate the surface area
A B ( = 7rd2) and the volume of a discrete bubble V B ( = -~TrdB).
1 3 The pressure drop across the interface of a
discrete gas bubble having a spherical shape can be determine by using the Young-Laplace equation as
4a
Ap = ~ , (4)

788
and thus the total free surface energy F can be given as

F=aTrd~- 4a l 3 =
1 2 (5)
When the bubble concentration in bubble flow increases, bubbles coalescence occurs and forms larger gas
bubbles of a size similar to the pipe diameter. Thus, slug flow occurs if the bubble diameter is equal or larger
than tile pipe diameter. In consideration of this we are setting the bubble diameter db for the transition equal
to the tube diameter dh. For this case, one could approximate the frequency of bubbles flowing in the liquid
as
AUGs
n = k~-~ = k 1---'--~, (6)
"~Trd h

where k is a correction factor and QG(= AUas) is the gas flow rate, respectively. Multiplying the total free
surface energy F with the bubble frequency yields a "minimum" total free energy flux E~,min of a discrete
gas bubble (with d s = dh) flowing in the liquid as

~a,min : n f : ]~ -~arrdh = k--~hAUas. (7)

6 h
Setting this "minimum" total free energy flux Eo',min equal to the total turbulent kinetic energy flux of
the liquid flowing in the channel ET, one could approximate the minimum liquid volume flow rate which
is necessary to breakup a gas bubble having a diameter equal to the tube diameter and thus one could
approximate the transition from dispersed bubble to slug flow in the "low" liquid flow rate domain under low
gravity, l?bllowing the model from Chen et al. (1997), the turbulent kinetic energy in the liquid flowing in
the tube can be simplified for isotropic turbulent flow as

= 2 z
_3pL ,z ' (s)
2
where the turbulent velocity fluctuation ~u r' can be expressed, according to Levich (1962) as

=uL . (9)

Here, u L is the true liquid velocity defined by UL = ULS (1 -- a) -a and the friction coefficient can be de-
termined using the Blasius correlation for turbulent pipe flow: AT = CTReL ~, with the Reynolds number
R e a ( = ULdh/b'L) and for example CT = 0.079 and n = 0.25 for the turbulent flow in a circular tube. Thus,
the total turbulent kinetic energy flux in the liquid flowing in the channel can be expressed as

ET = eTOL = 3pLCTReL'~u~ AULs, (10)

4
where QL(= AULs) is the liquid flow rate. The transition boundary from dispersed bubble to slug flow under
#g0-condition can now be obtained by setting E~,min = ET as an implicit equation since a depends on Ucs
and ULS
8 k W e L ULS
- - - - - (11)
3 CT Re~ Uas'
where WeL(= PLU2Ldh/a) is the Weber number. The result with holding k konstant is shown in Figure 4 as
dotted curves with k = 2 for the circular tube and k = 0.8 for the rhombic channel. From the figures it could
be observed that this scaling predicts the transition well for the superficial liquid/gas velocity region displayed
here. In the following the influence of the channel geometry with the developing turbulent secondary flow
and the influence of the pipe diameter together with the gravity level is discussed for the transition from
dispersed bubble flow to a different flow regime.

789
 10 10
p - - circulartube i ~. ~ j . . , , . ! s" ~,.'"
reclangularchannel (s/w = 07) .,.~='s:"
- - - circulartube / .* . / . -

..... rhombicchannel ,,~s ""

..... rhombicchannel ., • .s"
s .J"
'- . . . . . . equilateraltriangular • ~ •
I dispersed bubbleflow] .,, .,. " . " ' . . .

~.,j j-°
I • s"
.- .s ~,-"
o~-''" #°

m
i::..: ..................

0.1 . . . . . . . . I i i i * i i i 0.1 i | i i . . . . | , i , i i . .
0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10
u~ [nVsl u~ [m/s]

(a) (b)
F I G U R E 5. Theoretical prediction of the transition from dispersed bubble flow in circular and non-circular
channels with an hydraulic diameter of dh ~ 6 mm: (a) in vertical upwards air-water two-phase flow (drift-
flux model- eq. (1) and empirical correlation according to WSlk et al. (1998)) and (b) in air-water two-phase
flow under low gravity (drift-flux model - eq. (1) and scaling - eq. (11)).

Influence Of The Turbulent Secondary Flow

The results of modeling the transition from dispersed bubble to slug or churn flow under terrestrial conditions
for four different channel geometries is shown in Figure 5a and the results for the transition from dispersed
bubble to slug flow under low gravity conditions is shown in Figure 5b for two different channel geometries.
From Figure 5 the influence of the turbulent secondary flow on the transition from dispersed bubble flow to
a different flow regime is obvious for both normal and low gravity condition. The transition region in the
"low" liquid flow rate domain is shifted to lower superficial liquid velocities holding UGS constant and in the
"middle" and "high" liquid flow rate domain the transition region is shifted to higher superficial gas velocities
holding ULS constant both in comparison to the circular tube. These shifting of the transition results from
the steeper radial distribution of the phases and/or velocities and from the turbulent secondary flow which
occurs in non-circular channels. For the transition from dispersed bubble flow in the "middle" and "high"
liquid flow rate domain, the higher radial distribution together with the turbulent secondary flow prevent the
agglomeration of the gas bubbles and the turbulent secondary flow causes an additional shear force acting
on the small gas bubbles. A similar maybe weaker influence occurs on the transition from dispersed bubble
flow in the "low" liquid flow rate domain.
4.0 ! 4.0 !
d= 6mm d= 6ram
I _ d i s bubble
p e r flow
s eI d .... d = 25 mm .... d = 25 mm
...... d=4Omm ...... d=4Omm
2.o . ..~ 3"'; ; " 2.o dispersedbubUe flow~
.j~,,
"~' ,..t ~"

= 1.o ~ 1.0
-- 0.9
0.8 0.8
0.7 0.7 . ..

0.5 0.5

0.4 . . . . . . . . = . . . . . . . . 0.4 J i = = .... ~ . . . . . . . .

0.1 1 10 01 1 10

U~s [m/s I U~ [m/s]

(a) (b)
F I G U R E 6. Influence of the pipe diameter on the transition from dispersed bubble to slug flow in the 'low'
liquid flow rate region: (a) in vertical upwards air-water two-phase flow and (b) in air-water two-phase flow
under low gravity.

790
 Influence Of The Pipe Diameter And Gravity Level

The effect of the pipe diameter is shown for vertical upwards gas/liquid flow in Figure 6a based on an empirical
correlation (WSlk et al., 1998) and for gas/liquid flow under low gravity conditions in Figure 6b using the
proposed scaling with holding the correction factor k constant with k = 2 for three different pipe diameter.
Under terrestrial condition ULS of the transition increases with increasing pipe diameter at a given UGS,
whereas under low gravity ULS of the transition decreases with increasing pipe diameter at a given UGS.
Consequently, for the small diameter tube/channels used in this investigation the influence of gravity on the
transition from dispersed bubble flow is small in comparison to tubes having a diameter dh = 25 or 40 mm.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Experimental results for air-water two-phase flow in circular and non-circular channels with a hydraulic
diameter of dh ~ 6 mm were carried out. A comparison of the results for the different cross-sections under
normal and low gravity emphasizes the influence of the superficial liquid and gas velocity as well as the
influence of the channel geometry and the acceleration level on the transition between two different flow
patterns. It was found for the transition from dispersed bubble flow that the liquid flow rate can be subdivided
for both lg0 and #g0 conditions into three domains of "low", "middle" and "high" liquid flow rate. In the
"low" liquid flow rate domain the transition from dispersed bubble flow occurs at a lower ULS holding Uas
constant and in the "middle" and "high" liquid flow rate domain the transition from dispersed bubble flow
occurs at a higher UGs holding ULS constant. The main reason for this shift results from the turbulent
secondary flow and from the steeper radial distribution of the phase and/or velocities. A comparison of
an empirical correlation for lg0 and a scaling for #g0 displays the influence of the pipe diameter and the
acceleration level. Under lg0 the transition ULS increases with increasing dh and under #g0 the transition
ULs decreases with increasing dh. For the small diameter tube/channel investigated here, the transition
region under lg0 and #g0 lies nearly in the same superficial area but with increasing diameter, the change
between the two acceleration levels will be large.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The work was supported by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) under grant number 50WM9443. The
authors wish to express their gratitude to H. Faust and F. Ciecior for the preparation of the experiment
facility and to A. de Lazzer and U. Rosendahl for the helpful discussions in connections with subjects of this
work.

REFERENCES

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Hewitt, G.F., and Hall-Taylor, N.S., Annular Two-Phase Flow, New York, Pergamon Press, 1970.
Jayanti, S. and Hewitt, G.F., Int. J. Multiphase Flow 18, 847-860 (1992).
Levich, V.G., Physiochemieal Hydrodynamics, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1962, p. 154.
McQuillan, K.W., and Whalley, P.B., Int. J. Multiphase Flow 11, 161-175 (1985).
Mishima, K., and Hibiki, T., Int. J. Multiphase Flow 22, 703-712 (1996).
Nikuradse, J., VDI Forschungsheft 361 (1933).
Ono, S., and Kondo, S., "Molecular Theory of Surface Tension in Liquids," in Encyclopedia of Physics, edited by S.
Fliigge, Berlin, Springer, 1960, 134-157
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