Two-Group Modeling of Interfacial Area Transport in Large Diameter Channels

Abstract

A comparison of the existing two-group interfacial area transport equation source and sink terms for large diameter channels with recently collected interfacial area concentration measurements (Schlegel et al., 2012, 2014. Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 47, 42) has indicated that the model does not perform well in predicting interfacial area transport outside of the range of flow conditions used in the original benchmarking effort. In order to reduce the error in the prediction of interfacial area concentration by the interfacial area transport equation, several constitutive relations have been updated including the turbulence model and relative velocity correlation. The transport equation utilizing these updated models has been modified by updating the inter-group transfer and Group 2 coalescence and disintegration kernels using an expanded range of experimental conditions extending to pipe sizes of 0.304 m [12 in.], gas velocities of up to nearly 11 m/s [36.1 ft/s] and liquid velocities of up to 2 m/s [6.56 ft/s], as well as conditions with both bubbly flow and cap-bubbly flow injection (Schlegel et al., 2012, 2014). The modifications to the transport equation have resulted in a decrease in the RMS error for void fraction and interfacial area concentration from 17.32% to 12.3% and 21.26% to 19.6%. The combined RMS error, for both void fraction and interfacial area concentration, is below 15% for most of the experiments used in the comparison, a distinct improvement over the previous version of the model.

Department(s)

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science

Keywords and Phrases

Errors; Flow of fluids; Injection (oil wells); Turbulence models; Two phase flow; Void fraction; Constitutive relations; Experimental conditions; Interfacial area concentrations; Interfacial area transport equation; Interfacial area transports; Liquid velocities; Relative velocity; Transport equation; Transport properties

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0029-5493

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2015 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Nov 2015

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