Comparison of experimental data and numerical simulation of two-phase flow pattern in vertical minichannel

• Authors: Jarosław Sowiński , Marek Krawczyk , Marek Dziubiński
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The aim of the study was the implementation of a numerical simulation of the air-water two-phase flow in the minichannel and comparing results obtained with the values obtained experimentally. To perform the numerical simulations commercial software ANSYS FLUENT 12 was used. The first step of the study was to reproduce the actual research installation as a three-dimensional model with appropriate and possible simplifications - future computational domain. The next step was discretisation of the computational domain and determination of the types of boundary conditions. ANSYS FLUENT 12 has three built-in basic models with which a two-phase flow can be described. However, in this work Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) model was selected as it meets the established requirements of research. Preliminary calculations were performed for a simplified geometry. The calculations were later verified whether or not the simplifications of geometry were chosen correctly and if they affected the calculation. The next stage was validation of the chosen model. After positive verification, a series of calculations was performed, in which the boundary conditions were the same as the starting conditions in laboratory experiments. A satisfactory description of the experimental data accuracy was attained.

Keywords

EN

two phase flow; minichannel; flow pattern; numerical simulation

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Chemical and Process Engineering
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 63-71

Dates

published

1 - 3 - 2012

online

6 - 3 - 2012

Contributors

author

Jarosław Sowiński

• Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Lodz, ul. Wólczańska 213, 90-924 Łódź, Poland

author

Marek Krawczyk

• Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Lodz, ul. Wólczańska 213, 90-924 Łódź, Poland

author

Marek Dziubiński

• Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Lodz, ul. Wólczańska 213, 90-924 Łódź, Poland

References

• Dziubiński M., 2005. Hydrodynamics of two-phase flow mixtures of liquid-gas, Wydawnictwo Politechniki Łódzkiej, Łódź (in Polish).
• FLUENT Release 12.1, 2009. Manual, Ansys Inc.
• Ide H., Fukano T., 2005. Experimental research on the correlations of holdup and fractional pressure drop in air-water two-phase flow in capillary rectangular channel. Exp. Therm. Sci., 29, 833-841. DOI: 10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2005.03.010.[Crossref]
• Mishima K., Hibiki T., 1996. Some characteristics of air-water two-phase flow in small diameter vertical tubes. Int. J., Multiphase flow, 22, 703-712. DOI: 10.1016/0301-9322(96)00010-9.[Crossref]
• Pohorecki R., Kula K., 2008. A simple mechanism of bubble and slug formation in Taylor flow in microchannels. Chem. Eng. Res. Des., 86, 997-1001. DOI: 10.1016/j.cherd.2008.03.013.[Crossref][WoS]
• Qian D., Lawal A., 2006. Numerical study on gas and liquid slugs for Taylor flow in a T-junction microchannel. Chem. Eng. Sci., 61, 7609-7625. DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2006.08.073.[Crossref]
• Raghvendra G., Fletcher D. F., Haynes B. S., 2009. On the CFD modelling of Taylor flow in microchannels. Chem. Eng. Sci., 64, 2941-2950. DOI:10.1016/j.ces.2009.03.018.[Crossref]
• Santos R. M., Kawaji M., 2010. Numerical modeling and experimental investigation of gas-liquid slug formation in a microchannel T-junction. Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 36, 314-323. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2009.11.009.[Crossref]
• Sowiński J., Dziubiński M., Fidos H., 2009. Velocity and gas-void fraction in two-phase liquid-gas flow in narrow mini-channels. Arch. Mech., 61, 29 - 40.
• Tomczak Ł., Sowiński J., 2007. Application of image analysis to determine two-phase liquid- gas flow parameters in narrow minichannels. Chem. Process Eng., 28, 1134-1156.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10176-012-0006-1