Shorter Communications

Chemical Engineering Science, 1973, Vol. 28, pp. 974-975. Pergamon Press. Printed in Gnat Britain

A possible characterisation of entrainment in annular flow

(Received 19 May 1972; accepted 21 July 1972)

THE TRANSPORTof heat or mass by particles entrained in
vertical annular two phase flow is governed by the motion of
the particles in the gas stream, their deposition into the film
and the entrainment process for droplet formation. While the
former two components of the transport process are now well
understood[ 11, the mechanism by which droplets are en-
trained has not previously been elucidated even to the extent
of a successful characterisation in terms of dimensionless
groups. We present here a simple model of entrainment which
leads to a description of the process in terms of a single di-
mensionless group and show the result plotting existing data
on the basis of this formulation.
A variety of mechanisms may contribute to the gas-liquid
interaction and the detailed form of the interface. However
we argue that the dominant effect relevant to droplet forma-
tion and entrainment is the existence locally of sufhcient
shear stress, at the interface, to overcome the containment
effect of surface tension. Our model thus characterises the
entrainment process as arising from localised disruption of
the liquid surface by excess stress from the gas phase.
The two competing effects are thus the interfacial stress, rf,
and the containment pressure of a surface dislocation of
radius of curvature R, given by 2ulR. uis the surface tension
of the liquid. As R is a characteristic of the fdm we choose the
length scale to be the tilm thickness, m, and thus we are led to
suggest that the rate of entrainment should be characterised
in terms of the dimensionless group:
established to the point where measurement of entrained
liquid flow, pressure gradient (dP/dz), pressure (P) and film
thickness were made, and D is the tube diameter. In the cal-
culation of shear stress from the pressure gradient accelera-
tional effects were neglected, and in the calculation of
entrained droplet concentration it was assumed that the
droplets were moving at the core gas velocity.
For most of the data points in Fig. 1 the film thickness had
to be calculated since experimental results were not available.
The tilm thicknesses were calculated using a relationship pro-
posed by Turner and Wallis[4] and based on an equation
originally developed by Armand [5]. This relationship is
l-a= pm&
where a is the void fraction, and @P/d& is the pressure
gradient which would occur if the liquid film flow were flow-
ing alone in the tube. If the tilm thickness is small compared
with the tube diameter
l-(w=4mlD (4)
(dP/dz)LF was calculated from the liquid film friction factor
which is plotted against Reynolds number by Hewitt and Hall
Taylor [6] from numerical data of Hewitt [7]. The validity of
this method of calculating him thickness is dependent upon
the shear stress in the liquid tilm being constant Ram the tube

This hypothesis was tested with data obtained from a

number of sources (details are given in Table 1) with air-
water and air-alcohol systems in tubes ranging in diameter
from 9.5 to 3 1.8 mm.
In long tubes, if the pressure gradient is not large, an
approximate equilibrium situation should be set up where the
rate of entrainment of droplets from the liquid film is equal to
the rate of deposition of droplets back into the film. Recent
calculations[l] have confirmed the previous experimental
finding [2,3] that the deposition rate, DE, is given by

DR=kC (2)

where k is a mass transfer coefficient and C is the concentra-

tion of liquid droplets in the gas core. If the deposition rate
and the equilibrium rate are equal the concentration of liquid
droplets in the core is directly proportional to the entrain-
ment rate. For this reason C was plotted against the dimen-
sionless group S. True equilibrium can never be obtained as
0 0.1 S 02 0.3
the pressure gradient cannot be zero. In an attempt to ensure
that all the data in Fig. 1 can be described as equilibrium data, Fig. 1. Effect of the dimensionless group S on the concentra-
results were rejected if L/D < 150 or if P/(dP/dz) < 20 m. L tion of entrained droplets in the gas core. (For meaning of
is the length of the tube from the point where annular flow is symbols see Table 1.)

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 Shorter Communications

Table 1. Entrainment data analysed arising from the fluctuation spectra and correlation of both
these quantities.
Tube Despite the spread of the data the general trend shown in
Symbol in Ref. diameter Film Fig. 1 gives convincing support to the description of entrain-
Fig. 1 System thickness ment as arising from local disruption of the liquid film.
Onn@
Further work is currently underway in this laboratory both to
further elucidate the mechanism of entrainment and the
v 9 Air-Water 31.8 Experimental corrections arising from the stochastic nature of the process,
10 Air-Water 31.8 Calculated and to gather more accurate experimental data over a wide
; Air-Water 31.8 Calculated range of conditions to further test the hypothesis presented
n 1: Air-Water 31.8 Experimental here. In this way it is hoped that the source of the scatter of
X 2 Air-Water 95 Calculated the data points can be identified and accommodated in an
+ 3 Air-Water 9.5 Calculated improved version of this correlation.
0 12 Air-Water 12.0 Calculated
0 12 Air-Alcohol 12.0 Calculated Acknowledgements-Thanks are due to Mr. D. Butterworth
and Dr. G. F. Hewitt for useful discussions.

wall to the gas-liquid interface. Results where the shear stress P. HUTCHINSON
P. B. WHALLEYt
varied by more than 10 percent across the liquid film were
thus rejected, and it was found that in those cases where the Theoretical Physics Division
lilm thickness had been measured experimentally, the differ- Atomic Energy Research Establishment
ence between the calculated and experimental values differed Harwell, Berkshire, England
by less than 10 percent. Experimental values of the 8lrn
thickness were used to calculate S where they were available. NOTATION
In Fig. 1 we show the result of plotting data for entrain- concentration of entrained droplets in gas core
ment rate as a finction of S. It is clear from the figure that a mass per unit volume
definite trend exists over a wide range of experimental con- diameter of tube
ditions, including liquids of different surface tension. The deposition rate: mass per unit area per unit time
degree of coherence achieved is a marked improvement over pressure gradient in annular flow
previous work [8] in which the grouping of points varied with pressure. gradient with the liquid film flow flowing
fluid physical properties and tube diameter. It is clear from alone in the tube
Fig. 1 that such effects have almost been eliminated by plot- mass transfer coefficient
ting entrainment rate as a function of S. The entrainment rate length of tube
shows a rapid increase as S passes through the region film thickness
0.025 s S s O-075, as is consistent with a model based on pressure
disruption of the interface when the surface stress exceeds radius of curvature of surface disturbance
critical value. dimensionless group r,mla
The data exhibit some considerable scatter around the void fraction
general trend and this may be due, in part, to experimental surface tension
error, or errors arising from the calculation of the 6hn thick- interfacial shear stress
ness and interfacial stress. However in the present work we
have restricted attention to the mean values of the tilm thick-
ness and interfacial shear, whereas there will be corrections tDepartment of Engineering Science, Parks Road, Oxford.

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