Effect of Entrainment on Liquid Film Dryout in Vertical Upward Annular Flow

This work aims to investigate the effect of liquid entrainment on liquid film dryout in annular flow for flow boiling. Entrainment and deposition rates of droplets were included in mass conservation equations to estimate the local liquid film mass flux in annular flow, and the critical vapor quality at dryout conditions. Different entrainment rate correlations were evaluated using flow boiling data of n-pentane, iso-octane and water. Effect of the initial entrained fraction (IEF) at the churn-annular transition was also investigated. A transition Boiling number was proposed to separate the IEF-sensitive region at high Boiling numbers and the IEF-insensitive region low Boiling numbers. Besides, the diameter effect on dryout vapor quality was studied. The dryout vapor quality increases with decreasing tube diameter. A possible reason is that there is less droplet entrainment in smaller tubes, as evidenced in numerous flow pattern visualization studies. It needs to be pointed out that the dryout characteristics of submillimeter channels to be different because of different mechanisms of dryout, i.e., drying of liquid film underneath long vapor slugs and flow boiling instabilities.

Experimental and theoretical study of dryout in annular flow in small diameter channels

Experimental and theoretical study of dryout in annular flow in small diameter channels In the paper the experimental analysis of dryout in small diameter channels is presented. The investigations were carried out in vertical pipes of internal diameter equal to 1.15 mm and 2.3 mm. Low-boiling point fluids such as SES36 and R123 were examined. The modern experimental techniques were applied to record liquid film dryout on the wall, among the others the infrared camera. On the basis of experimental data an empirical correlation for predictions of critical heat flux was proposed. It shows a good agreement with experimental data within the error band of 30%. Additionally, a unique approach to liquid film dryout modeling in annular flow was presented. It led to the development of the three-equation model based on consideration of liquid mass balance in the film, a two-phase mixture in the core and gas. The results of experimental validation of the model exhibit improvement in comparison to other models from literature.

Experimental Study on Liquid Film Dryout Under Oscillatory Flow Conditions

The use of high power density core is one of the promising ways to improve economic efficiency of advanced boiling water reactors. It is however known that in boiling two-phase flows, an increase in power density commonly reduces the margin to the onset of unanticipated flow instability. Hence, in the development of a boiling water reactor of high power density core, ability to predict the occurrence of boiling transition is considered indispensable even when the coolant flow rate is not in the steady state. In the present work, sinusoidal oscillation was applied to the inlet mass flux and the experimental measurement of the critical heat flux was carried out under flow oscillation conditions. It was shown that the critical heat flux decreases monotonically with increased values of oscillation amplitude and oscillation period. These results are consistent with experimental data reported by previous investigators. A simple theory was then proposed to estimate the critical heat flux in oscillatory flow condition. Considering the application to the advanced boiling water reactors, the triggering mechanism of the critical heat flux condition is supposed to be the liquid film dryout in annular two-phase flow regime of high vapor quality. Under the flow oscillation condition, it is expected that long waves are formed on a liquid film due to the time variation of inlet mass flux. Assuming that the wave evolution within a boiling channel is influential in the occurrence of the local dryout of a liquid film, an available nonlinear wave theory was applied to the estimation of critical heat flux under the flow oscillation condition. It was demonstrated that the critical heat fluxes measured under the oscillatory conditions agree with the proposed theory fairly well.