Research Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2017, Vol. 9(8) 1–9
Ó The Author(s) 2017
Experimental investigation on DOI: 10.1177/1687814017714980
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
frictional multiplier of steam-water
two-phase flow in internally ribbed
enhanced tubes

Weishu Wang1,2, Weihui Xu1, Bingchao Zhao1 and Qincheng Bi2

Abstract
The frictional multiplier of steam-water two-phase flow in four-head internally ribbed tubes was experimentally
investigated under two test conditions—adiabatic and heated. The internally ribbed tube has the following dimensions:
outside diameter 28.6 mm, wall thickness 5.8 mm, and hydraulic diameter 15.24 mm. The test tube, 2000 mm in length,
was vertically installed and uniformly heated electrically. A wide range of experimental parameters were considered.
The pressure range was 9–31 MPa, mass flux range was 600–1800 kg/(m2 s), and steam quality range was 0–1 in subcriti-
cal pressure region. In this study, the effects of pressure, mass flux, and steam quality on the frictional multiplier
were analyzed. The corresponding empirical correlations were presented. The variation in pressure drop between the
adiabatic tube and heated tube was determined. The experimental results demonstrated that the characteristics of the
frictional pressure drop in the internally ribbed tube under heated and adiabatic conditions are dissimilar. The two-phase
frictional multiplier in the heated tube is higher than that in the adiabatic tube. With the decrease in the pressure
or increase in the steam quality, the two-phase frictional multiplier increases gradually. However, the single-phase fric-
tional factor in the heated tube is smaller than that in the adiabatic tube in the subcritical and supercritical pressure
region.

Keywords
Steam-water two-phase flow, internally ribbed enhanced tube, frictional multiplier

Date received: 10 November 2016; accepted: 17 May 2017

Academic Editor: Oronzio Manca

Introduction (DNB).7,8 The internally ribbed tube is widely used in

the water walls of modern supercritical boilers such as
The performance and efficiency of a thermal system supercritical circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers and
can be significantly enhanced if the dimensions of the supercritical pressure W-shape flame boilers. The
heat exchangers are reduced according to ‘‘optimum’’
heat transfer enhancement techniques for fixed heat 1
North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power,
duty. Because the ribbed channel can be used as a pas- Zhengzhou, China
sive heat transfer enhancement tool, a series of ribbed 2
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an
channels are generally utilized in industrial devices such Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
as the heat exchangers of chemical engineering systems,
Corresponding author:
refrigerators, and micro-coolers of electronic sys- Weishu Wang, North China University of Water Resources and Electric
tems.1–6 Various types of ribbed tubes are widely used Power, Zhengzhou 450045, China.
in boilers to delay the departure from nucleate boiling Email: wangweishu@ncwu.edu.cn

Creative Commons CC-BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without
further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/
open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
turbulence in the proximity of the tube wall surface is
enhanced to reduce the thermal boundary layer thick-
ness by a chaotic mixing of fluid in the internally ribbed
tube, which has been reviewed by Mohsen et al.9 and
Kareem et al.;10 in this manner, the heat transfer is
enhanced. It is evident that frictional pressure drop in
internally ribbed tubes is significantly higher than that
in smooth tubes.
Accurate predictions of frictional pressure drop of
single-phase and two-phase flows are crucial for the
effective design of thermal-exchange equipment for
industrial purposes because the pressure drop deter-
mines the power input in a fixed-flow system. In addi-
tion, the pressure drop also determines the mass flux,
flow distribution, and critical heat transfer (CHF) in a
fixed pressure drop system. Although considerable
research has been conducted, such as those by
Bergles,11 Guo et al.,12 Srinivasan et al.,13 Zdaniuk
et al.,8 and Taklifi et al.,14 and numerous empirical cor-
relations have been proposed in the past decades, these
study results are ineffective for achieving the purpose.
For example, there is negligible information on certain
effects of flow pattern and condition parameters on
frictional pressure drop of steam-water two-phase flow.
With the development of enhanced heat transfer tech-
nology, the prediction of two-phase flow frictional
pressure drop in ribbed flow channel has become highly
critical. Compared with the smooth channel, heat
transfer is higher in the ribbed channel; this is accom-
panied by a higher two-phase flow frictional pressure
drop. For a ribbed tube, numerous factors such as tube
diameter, rib parameters, inner surface configuration,
rib structure, and flow pattern affect the prediction of
two-phase flow frictional pressure drop. Over the past
years, predictions of two-phase frictional pressure drop
in micro-fin channels15–17 and small diameter tubes18
have been proposed. A few investigations have been
conducted on the internally ribbed tubes used in large
capacity boilers. Chen et al.,19 Cheng and Chen,20 and
Yang et al.4 reported the flow boiling and steam-water
two-phase frictional pressure drop in an internally
ribbed tube. Kolar21 experimentally investigated the
frictional pressure drop of triangular internally ribbed
tube and determined that the two-phase frictional pres-
sure drop is in direct proportion to the numerical value
of (e/d)0.63, where e is the rib height and d is the equiva-
lent inside diameter of the tube. Ackerman22 deter-
mined that the frictional pressure drop in the adiabatic
ribbed tube is 25% higher than that in the smooth tube.
A few research studies23–26 have also demonstrated that
the structure of the internally ribbed tube has a signifi-
cant impact on the frictional pressure drop.
The frictional pressure drop correlations of intern-
ally ribbed tubes vary among the diverse rib types.
Moreover, a number of these correlations were devel-
oped under adiabatic conditions, which differ from
actual industrial operating conditions. Therefore, it is
necessary to further enrich the corresponding database
of pressure drop of two-phase flow within ribbed tubes.
In this study, the frictional pressure drop characteristics
of steam-water two-phase flow are studied under heated
and adiabatic conditions. The system parameters taken
into consideration in this study adequately cover the
range of the operational parameters of supercritical
pressure boiler. The results are likely to provide a set of
meaningful references for the design of large capacity
heat exchanger.
Experimental setup and method
The experiments were carried out on a high-pressure
steam-water two-phase flow test loop capable of attain-
ing pressures of up to 40 MPa at Xi’an Jiaotong
University. The test loop is suitable for undertaking
experimental research on two-phase flows, single-phase
flows, and heat transfer in large steam boilers, nuclear
reactors, and heat exchangers. The schematic diagram
of the test loop is shown in Figure 1. The test section
was a stainless steel tube, which was seamless, cold
drawn, and annealed. The experimental system incor-
porated a series of stainless steel tubes, which together
were used as a resistance heater and through which the
water flowed. With the resistance heater, the local heat
input was determined, and a point heat transfer coeffi-
cient could be calculated. Feed water was boosted from
the tank by a high-pressure plunger pump and heated
by a regenerative heat exchanger and main pre-heater
to obtain the required test parameters. Fluids from the
test section flowed through the regenerator and con-
denser and then returned to the tank. The bypass was
used to regulate mass, velocities, and pressures in the
experiment. The test section and main pre-heater were
directly heated by alternating current, with these mod-
ules themselves functioning as resistance elements. The
heated tubes were enclosed with insulation. In this
experiment, the overall heated capacity was 840 kW, of
which 180 kW was used for heating the test section.
Two electrical terminal bars, which were constructed
from copper plate, were drilled and reamed to fit the
tube dimension and finally soldered in place.
The test tube was a 28.6 mm 3 5.8 mm four-rib
internally ribbed tube of hydraulic diameter 15.24 mm.
The rib was in the form of a helix on the inner surface.
Specifications of the test tube are presented in Table 1.
The heated length was 2000 mm, measured between the
terminal bars. The outer wall temperature of the heated
test tube was measured by 96 thermocouples of F3 mm
NiCr–NiSi (precision of 0.4 K) connected at 14 cross
sections along the length of the test section to identify
variations in the outer tube wall temperature. These
thermocouples were calibrated in a water thermostat
Wang et al. 3

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the test loop.

1: water tank; 2: filter; 3: high-pressure plunger pump; 4: mass flowmeter; 5: orifice flowmeter; 6: heat exchanger; 7: pre-heater; 8: test section—
vertical; 9: test section—horizontal; 10: condenser; 11: inlet of cooling water; 12: outlet of cooling water; 13: rotermeter;14: bypass.

Table 1. Specifications of the four-head internally ribbed tube. These pressure transducers were calibrated by the
national authoritative quality inspection department.
Specifications Value Tolerance The mass flow rate was measured by an orifice meter
Outside diameter (mm) 28.6 6 0.15 calibrated by the weighing method. The measuring
Major inside diameter (mm) 15.84 6 0.15 accuracy of the orifice meter was 0.25%. The symbols
Minimum wall thickness (mm) 5.8 + 20%, 20% P and DP represent pressure and differential pressure
Number of ribs 4 – measuring points, respectively. The heated test section
Rib width (circumferential), mm 4.8 6 0.6
was mounted vertically and enclosed with 50 mm thick
Rib width (longitudinal), mm 8.3 6 1.04
Rib height (mm) 0.85 6 0.3 insulation.
Rib side angle (°) 54 + 15, 210 The experiments were performed as per the follow-
Lead (mm) 86.19 6 12.7 ing procedure. The pressure, mass flux, and heat flux
were first maintained constant. Then, the heating pow-
ers of the pre-heaters were increased gradually, which
increased the inlet enthalpy of the test section continu-
system before being used. The adiabatic test section ously. By means of the above operation, parameters
was 2000 mm in length. The electrical heating power including wall temperature and heat transfer character-
was defined as the product of the effective values of the istics of the working fluid were measured under various
voltage and current. operating conditions. The pressure, fluid temperature,
Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the structures of the test mass flux, wall temperature, and electrical input
tubes of the heated test section and adiabatic test sec- were acquired automatically and recorded by an
tion, respectively. The fluid pressure of the test section IMP3595 distributed data acquisition board connected
was measured by the Rosemount 3051 capacitance-type with all the sensors used in the experiments. The
pressure transmitter. ST3000/S900 differential pressure parameter ranges of this study were as follows: the
transducers were used to measure the pressure drop of pressure ranged from 9 to 31 MPa, mass flux varied
the test section. Furthermore, the measuring accuracy from 600 to 1800 kg/(m2 s), and steam quality varied
of the differential pressure transducers was 0.25%. from 0 to 1.
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 2. Test section and thermocouple arrangement for the heated tube.

equations (2) and (4), respectively. The acceleration

pressure drops in the heated tube and adiabatic tube
are calculated using equations (3) and (5), respectively.
For the heated tube test section
" #
Figure 3. Test section and thermocouple arrangement for the rl  g  L  sin a 1 + xo  (rl =rg  1)
adiabatic tube. DPg =  ln
(xo  xi )  (rl =rg  1) 1 + xi  (rl =rg  1)

Date reduction of two-phase frictional ð2Þ

pressure drop where rl is the density of the liquid phase, rg is the den-
sity of the gas phase, xo is the steam quality of the out-
With regard to steam-water two-phase frictional pres-
let, xi is the steam quality of the inlet, and a is the angle
sure drop, the main influencing factors are pressure,
of the tube
steam quality, mass flux, heat flux, tube diameter, flow
direction, and geometrical features of the inner surface !
of the tube. The total pressure drop is obtained as 2 1 1
DPa = G  ðx0  xi Þ   ð3Þ
follows rg rl
DP = DPTPf + DPg + DPa ð1Þ For the adiabatic tube test section
where DP is the total pressure drop, DPTPf is the two- DPg = rl  g  L  sin a ð4Þ
phase frictional pressure drop, DPg is the gravitational
pressure drop, and DPa is the acceleration pressure DPa = 0 ð5Þ
drop. The total pressure drop can be calculated from
The two-phase frictional pressure drop is given by
the measured data is DP = P1 2 P2.
As represented by equation (1), the two-phase fric-
DPTP = f2l0  DPl0 ð6Þ
tional pressure drop is calculated as the total pressure
drop minus the gravitational pressure drop and accel- where DPl0 is the single-phase saturated-water frictional
eration pressure drop. The total pressure drop is pressure drop and is obtained by the Blasius correla-
obtained from the experiment, and the gravitational tion;27 the coefficient f2l0 is defined as the two-phase
pressure drop and acceleration pressure drop are calcu- frictional multiplier.
lated by the homogeneous flow model used in this The steam quality at the axial location z of the
study. Specifically, the gravitational pressure drops in test section is calculated using the thermal balance
the heated tube and adiabatic tube are calculated using equation
Wang et al. 5

Table 2. Uncertainties in measured and calculated parameters.

Variables Uncertainty (%)

Pressure (MPa) 1.11

Differential pressure (kPa) 0.75
Electrically heated power (kW) 6.25
Fluid temperature (°C) 0.4
Steam quality 7.63

P
pDl (Ll  Lsc )ql + pDn Ln qn + pdzql
x= ð7Þ
Aflow  G  Hfg
where Dn, Ln, and qn are the inside diameter, heated
length, and heat flux, respectively, of the nth pre-hea-
ter. Lsc is the sub-cooled length within Ll, which can be Figure 4. Effects of pressure on two-phase frictional multiplier
calculated by in heated tube.

Aflow  GCp DTsub

Lsc =
pDl  ql
where DTsub is the temperature variation between the
saturated fluid temperature and inlet fluid temperature
of the first pre-heater. In the experiments, the heat
absorption efficiency was calibrated, and the system
heat balance was ensured to be maximized. Thus, the
steam quality in this study is considered an equilibrium
steam quality. The heat absorption efficiency of the test
section is estimated from the enthalpy alteration of
single-phase water and input electric power and is
given by
DH
h=
QE
wherein DH and QE are calculated as follows
1 2
DH = pd GCp (to  ti )
4 whole steam-quality region, indicating that the two-
QE = UI
The estimated uncertainties in the measured and cal-
culated parameters are delineated in Table 2.
Experimental results and discussion
It is generally considered that the steam quality, pres-
sure, and mass flux influence f2l0 . Therefore, the effects
of these parameters on the two-phase frictional multi-
plier in the heated and adiabatic tubes are discussed in
this article.
Effects of steam quality and pressure on f2l0
Figure 4 illustrates the experimental data of the two-
phase frictional multiplier plotted against steam quality
and system pressure at constant mass flux of
ð8Þ
1500 kg/m2 s and constant heat flux of 500 kW/m2 in
the internally ribbed heated tube. The ordinate repre-
sents the two-phase frictional multiplier, and the
abscissa represents the steam quality. Considering the
example of a pressure of 9 MPa, it is observed in
Figure 4 that the two-phase frictional multiplier
increased with increasing steam quality within a certain
range of steam quality. This phenomenon demonstrates
that the frictional pressure drop in the steam phase was
higher than that in the liquid phase. However, when
the steam quality reached a certain value (approxi-
mately 0.7), the rate of increase reduced.
As illustrated in Figure 4, the pressure significantly
ð9Þ impacted the two-phase frictional multiplier, which
decreased with increasing pressure. However, the
decreasing trend was gradual until the near-critical
pressure region was reached. The two-phase frictional
multiplier was approximately equal to 1 within the
ð10Þ
ð11Þ phase frictional pressure drop was similar to that of the
single-phase frictional pressure drop when the pressure
approached the near-critical value.
Effects of mass flux on f2l0
Figure 5 displays the variations in two-phase frictional
multiplier with steam quality and mass flux at a pres-
sure of 16 MPa and heat flux of 300 kW/m2 in the
heated test section. From Figure 5, it is observed that
the mass flux had negligible effect on two-phase fric-
tional multiplier in the range of the test parameters. In
the low steam-quality region, the frictional multiplier
converged to a line, indicating that the frictional multi-
plier is insensitive to mass flux. With the increase in the
mass flux, the frictional multiplier in the high steam-
quality region increases marginally. A local hump
appeared in the proximity of steam quality of
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 5. Effects of mass flux on two-phase frictional multiplier
in heated tube.
Figure 6. Frictional multiplier difference in heated and
adiabatic tubes.
approximately 0.6 under the high mass fluxes of 1650
and 1800 kg/(m2 s). It could be owing to flow regime
variations in this region. This concept of flow pattern
variation in these regions was derived from a compari-
son of the study results presented by Taklifi et al.14 and
Hewitt and Roberts.28 From the figure, it could be pre-
dicted that the shift to annular flow regimes occurs at a
point within the range of x = 0.5–0.8.
Two-phase frictional multiplier in heated and
adiabatic tubes
Figure 6 illustrates the difference of two-phase fric-
tional multiplier between the heated test tube and adia-
batic test tube at mass flux of 1200 kg/(m2 s) and
pressures of 13 and 21 MPa. First, the effects of operat-
ing pressure on pressure drop are remarkable. The two-
phase frictional multiplier decreases with increasing
pressure under the same steam quality; furthermore,
Figure 7. Variation of single-phase frictional factor with
Reynolds number.
the difference of frictional multiplier between the two
pressures increases with increasing steam quality.
Second, as can be observed from Figure 6, when
P = 21 MPa, the frictional multiplier of both adiabatic
and heated tubes gradually increase with the increase in
the steam quality. And there is little difference between
the frictional multiplier of adiabatic tube and heated
tube. It is meant that the two-phase frictional pressure
drop is equal to the single-phase frictional pressure
drop when the pressure is around critical
pressure. While P = 13 MPa, the frictional multiplier
of the heating tube is always bigger than the adiabatic
tube under the same steam quality. And the frictional
multiplier in the adiabatic tube keeps increasing. But
the frictional multiplier in the heated tube increases
first and then remains a certain value (steam quality of
0.7–1). This phenomenon can be explained as follows:
(1) the inside wall of the internally ribbed tube encom-
passes liquid water because of the liquid-phase centrifu-
gal force flowing in the internally ribbed tube at lower
steam quality, which leads to the increase in the fric-
tional multiplier when the steam quality is less than 0.7.
(2) When the steam quality is bigger than 0.7, the fluid
flowing at a higher speed could rupture the liquid mem-
brane in the proximity of the internal wall when the
steam quality exceeded a certain value in the heated
tube compared with the adiabatic tube; simultaneously,
the flow pattern of the higher speed fluid in the high
steam-quality region shifts to a mist flow at a lower
pressure. The two reasons together lead to the frictional
multiplier in the heated tube to increase first and then
remain a certain value.
It is observed in Figure 6 that in the two-phase flow
region, the frictional multiplier of the heated tube is
higher than that of the adiabatic tube. However, in the
single-phase flow region, the frictional factor in the
heated tube is smaller than that in the adiabatic tube,
which is illustrated in Figure 7. The phenomenon might
Wang et al.
be a result of the enhancement of flow disturbance on
the wall surface in the two-phase flow region. In the
single-phase flow region, the friction factor f was a
function of only the Reynolds number,
Re = (r  u  d=m), which is associated with the dynamic
viscosity m; m decreased with the increase in the liquid
temperature at similar pressure and mass flux. As the
inner-wall temperature of the heated tube was higher
than that of the adiabatic tube, the dynamic viscosity
of the heated tube was smaller, Reynolds number of
the heated tube was higher, and friction factor f of the
heated tube was smaller than the respective values of
the adiabatic tube.
Correlations of two-phase frictional pressure drop
As described before, the two-phase frictional pressure
drop was calculated by equation (6). The two-phase
frictional multiplier could be correlated as follows
f2l0 = DPTP =DPl0
where
DPTP = fTP  (l=d)  (G2 =rh )
DPl0 = f  (l=d)  (G2 =rl )
where
rh = rl =(1 + x  (rl =rg  1))
Combining equations (12a)–(12d) yields
f2l0 = ( fTP =f )  (1 + x(rl =rg  1))
By introducing a correction factor k, equation (13)
can be expressed as follows
f2l0 = (1 + k  x(rl =rg  1))
Based on the experimental results in Figures 4–6, we
found that the two-phase frictional multiplier is related
to steam quality x, operating pressure P, and mass flux
G. Meanwhile, the function f (x, P, G, . . . ) is introduced,
which also is related to steam quality x, operating pres-
sure P, and mass flux G. Then, equation (14) can be
rewritten as follows
f2l0 = 1 + f (x, P, G, . . . )  (rl =rg  1)
Therefore, the purpose of the experimental study is
to obtain the function f (x, P, G, . . . ). From Figure 5, it
can be observed that the mass fluxes have negligible
effect on the two-phase frictional multiplier f2l0 , and
therefore, the function f (x, P, G, . . . ) can be simplified
to the form f (x, P). This implies that the critical factors
affecting the two-phase frictional multiplier are steam
7
quality and pressure; the others factors may be ignored.
Now, it is feasible to fit the formulas of two-phase fric-
tional multiplier under heated and adiabatic conditions
as follows.
The formula of two-phase frictional multiplier f2l0 is
fitted to the case of the adiabatic internally ribbed tube.
Just as in equation (14), rl =rg considers the effect of
pressure on f2l0 . Based on the experimental results of
this study as discussed above, the function f (x, P) can
be simplified to f(x), which is a unary function with
steam quality x. Referring to Chisholm29 method, we
assume f (x) = ½a + bx + cx2 + dx3  and correlate the
function using polynomial fitting; the coefficients a, b,
c, and d could be obtained based on 531 and 474 data
points for the adiabatic and heated tubes, respectively.
Based on the multivariate linear regression analysis,
we obtain the following correlation for adiabatic intern-
ally ribbed tube
f (x) = 0:002 + 0:52x + 0:03x2  0:22x3 ð16Þ
ð12aÞ
The corresponding application conditions are the
pressure range 9–21.5 MPa and mass flux range 400–
1800 kg/(m2 s). The comparison between predicted two-
ð12bÞ phase multiplier and experimental data is displayed in
Figure 8. The average error of equation (16) is 5.4%
ð12cÞ
with a standard deviation of 16.9%. In all, 32.2% of
the test data lie within the 6 10% error band, and the
entire set of test data lie within the 6 40% error band.
ð12dÞ Fitting the formula of two-phase f2l0 in the heated
internally ribbed tube yields
f (x) = 0:05 + 0:36x + 0:36x2  0:42x3 ð17Þ
ð13Þ
The corresponding application conditions are the
pressure range of 9–21.5 MPa, mass flux range 400–
1800 kg/(m2 s), and heat flux range 300–600 kW/m2.
ð14Þ
ð15Þ
Figure 8. Comparison between experimental and calculated
two-phase multiplier using equation (16) for adiabatic tube.
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 9. Comparison between experimental and calculated
two-phase multiplier using equation (17) for heated tube.
Figure 9 presents the experimentally obtained values of
the two-phase multiplier plotted against those obtained
by equation (17). The predictions of equation (17) are
satisfactory, with an average error of 4.7% and a stan-
dard deviation of 11.1%. In all, 53.8% of the test data
lie within the 6 10% error band, and the entire set of
test data lie within the 6 30% error band.
Conclusion
1. The single-phase frictional factor f in the heated
tube was lower than that in the adiabatic tube,
while the two-phase frictional multiplier was
higher in the heated tube than in the adiabatic
tube. The values based on the diverse pressure
ranges can be calculated according to correla-
tions expressed by equations (16) and (17).
2. The pressure significantly affected the two-phase
frictional multiplier. Two-phase frictional multi-
plier f2l0 decreased with increasing pressure, and
the rate of decrease reduced until the near-
critical pressure region was reached. Steam qual-
ity affected the two-phase frictional multiplier in
a more complicated manner. With increasing
steam quality, f2l0 increased; however, the
increase gradient reduced correspondingly.
3. The effect of mass flux on f and f2l0 was weak;
however, the effect of mass flux on f2l0 in the
higher steam-quality region was more apparent
than in the lower steam-quality region. With an
increase in the mass flux, the two-phase fric-
tional multiplier decreased accordingly.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This work was supported by the Program for
Innovative Research Team (in Science and Technology) at
University of Henan Province (No. 16IRTSTHN017), Plan
for Scientific Innovation Talent of Henan Province (No.
154100510011), and National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. 51406026).
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