Droplet Entrainment Rate in Vertical Annlar Two-Phase Flow

Abstract

Droplet entrainment and deposition are the two most important physical phenomena in the gas-liquid annular two-phase flow. Modeling of these phenomena is essential for the estimation of dryout margins in the Light Water Reactors (LWRs) and the boilers. In this study, gas-liquid annular two-phase flow experiments are performed in a vertical round tube test section under adiabatic conditions. Air-water and organic fluid Freon-113 are used as the test fluids. The experiments covered a wide range of pressure and flow conditions. Liquid film extraction technique was used for the measurement of droplet entrainment and deposition rates. Additionally, the thickness of liquid film was measured in the air-water experiments using the ring type conductance probes. In this paper, the experimental data on entrainment rate is used to analyze the currently available correlations in the literature. The analysis showed that the existing correlations failed to predict the data at high gas velocity conditions. At high gas velocity, the experimental entrainment rate approaches a maximum limiting value; however, the correlations predicted continuously increasing entrainment rate as the gas velocity increases.