Heat transfer, pressure drop and void fraction in two-phase, two-component flow in a vertical tube

Abstract

There are very few data existing in two-phase, two-component flow where heat transfer, pressure drop and void fraction have all been measured under the same conditions. Such data are very valuable for two-phase heat-transfer model development and for testing existing heat-transfer models or correlations requiring frictional pressure drop (or wall shear stress) and/or void fraction. An experiment was performed which adds markedly to the available data of the type described in terms of the range of gas and liquid flow rates and liquid Prandtl number. Heat transfer and pressure drop measurements were taken in a vertical 11.68-mm i.d. tube for two-phase (gas-liquid) flows covering a wide range of conditions. Mean void fraction measurements were taken, using quick-closing valves, in a 12.7-mm i.d. tube matching very closely pressures, temperatures, gas-phase superficial velocities and liquid-phase superficial velocities to those used in the heat-transfer and pressure-drop experiments. The gas phase was air whilewater and two aqueous solutions of glycerine (59 and 82% by mass) were used as the liquid phase. In the two-phase experiments the liquid Prandtl number varied from 6 to 766, the superficial liquid velocity from 0.05 to 8.5 m/s, and the superficial gas velocity from 0.02 to 119 m/s. The measured two-phase heat-transfer coefficients varied by a factor of approximately 1000, the two-phase frictional pressure drop ranged from small negative values (in slug flow) to 93 kPa and the void fraction ranged from 0.01 to 0.99; the flow patterns observed included bubble, slug, churn, annular, froth, the various transitions and annular-mist. Existing heat-transfer models or correlations requiring frictional pressure drop (or wall shear stress) and/or void fraction were: tested against the present data for mean heat-transfer coefficients. It was found that the methods with more restrictions (in terms of the applicable range of void fraction, liquid Prandtl number or liquid superficial Reynolds number) give better predictions. Among the most restrictive methods, the method of Drucker et al. is r commended. A method less restrictive, but still giving good predictions, is the Liquid Acceleration Model for superficial liquid Reynolds numbers greater than 2000. For local heat-transfer coefficients, a method proposed by Vijay, where Spalding's single-phase boundary-layer theory was adapted to the two-phase case, was tested considering the flow patterns individually and various methods of calculating two-phase properties. Good predictions were obtained for the case of bubble and froth flows when liquid properties were used as the two-phase mixture properties.