Experimental studies of flooding in nearly horizontal pipes

Abstract

To investigate the flooding phenomenon in nearly horizontal pipes the experimental studies are performed in the facility with the length of 2160mm, with three different inner diameters of 40mm, 60mm, and 70mm, and with the various inclination angles. Air and water approximately at room temperature and at atmospheric pressure are used as test fluids. The local void factions are measured by the three conductance probes located at the inlet, middle, and exit of water flow, respectively. Two mechanisms governing the transition to flooding are proposed. The effects of pipe end geometry, pipe diameter, and inclination angle are investigated and the comparisons with the slug formation models are conducted. It is found in this study that the transition to flooding is originated from two mechanisms i.e. "wave instability" and "high head flooding", and two regions (sub-critical and super-critical) coexist if the air flow increases up to a criticalvalue. It is observed that large roll waves are grown to the critical amplitude in the sub-critical region, does not show any dustive growth phenomenon. When the void fraction in the sub-critical region is used as the parameter for the flooding criterion, Ishii``s slug formation model predicts the data without systematid errors. On the other hand, when the voide fraction in the super-critical region is selected as the parameter, Taitel``s slug formation model best fitsthe data. Data obtained in the condition of high head flooding are not in good agreement with the results predicted by the slug formation models. Also, the transition criterion to the onset of flooding is very sensitive to the inclination angle, and the effect of pipe end geometry on the onset of flooding is negligible.