Frontiers in Energy Research (Apr 2020)

Experimental Study of Bubbly-Slug Flow Transition Criteria in an Vertical Circular Tube by Using WMS

  • Shimo Yu,
  • Xiao Yan,
  • Lei Zhou,
  • Aiwei Xu,
  • Junyi Zhang,
  • Suijun Gong,
  • Yuanfeng Zan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2020.00051
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

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Two-phase flow is an important and common phenomenon in reactor systems, and there are significant differences in the heat and mass transfer characteristics of two-phase flow under different flow patterns. Researchers have proposed a variety of flow pattern transition mechanisms to predict the two-phase flow. But limited by the means of measurement, the critical void fraction for flow pattern transition can’t be determined. Two types of bubbly-slug flow transition criteria in vertical circular tubes are studied in this paper and a wire mesh sensor (WMS) was manufactured to measure the critical void fraction for bubbly-slug transition. One hundred forty-seven visualization tests were carried out for validation.

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