Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Experimental study on air-water countercurrent flow limitation in a vertical tube based on measurement of film thickness behavior

  • Wan, Jie (Key Laboratory of Low-Grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University) ;
  • Sun, Wan (Key Laboratory of Low-Grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University) ;
  • Deng, Jian (Science and Technology on Reactor System Design Technology Laboratory, NPIC) ;
  • Pan, Liang-ming (Key Laboratory of Low-Grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University) ;
  • Ding, Shu-hua (Science and Technology on Reactor System Design Technology Laboratory, NPIC)
  • Received : 2020.08.14
  • Accepted : 2020.12.20
  • Published : 2021.06.25
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Abstract

The gas-liquid counter-current flow limitation (CCFL) is closely related to efficient and safety operation of many equipment in industrial cycle. Air-water countercurrent flow experiments were performed in a tube with diameter of 25 mm to understand the triggering mechanism of CCFL. A parallel electrode probe was utilized to measure film thickness whereby the time domain and frequency domain characteristics of liquid film was obtained. The amplitude of the interface wave is small at low liquid flow rate while it becomes large at high liquid flow rate after being disturbed by the airflow. The spectral characteristic curve shows a peak-shaped distribution. The crest exists between 0 and 10 Hz and the amplitude decreases with the frequency increase. The analysis of visual observation and characteristic of film thickness indicate that two flooding mechanisms were identified at low and high liquid flow rate, respectively. At low liquid flow rate, the interfacial waves upward propagation is responsible for the formation of CCFL onset. While flooding at high liquid flow rate takes place as a direct consequence of the liquid bridging in tube due to the turbulent flow pattern. Moreover, it is believed that there is a transition region between the low and high liquid flow rate.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful for the support of National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFB1900400).

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