Experimental Investigation on Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow Regimes in Upward Co-Current Vertical Tubes with Intermediate Diameter

In the present research, two-phase flow is studied adiabatically in vertical plexigalss tubes with inner diameters of 40 mm and 70 mm in heights of 1.73 m and 3.22 m. Flow pattern maps are presented for both tubes and effect of diameter and height on the transition curves between flow patterns is investigated. Air and water are used as working fluids. Superficial velocities of air and water for 40 mm tube are 0.054-9.654 m/s and 0.015-0.877 m/s; and for 70 mm tube are 0.038-20.44 m/s and 0.036-1.530 m/s, respectively. By changing the tube diameter from 40 mm to 70 mm, slug pattern region shrinks considerably. Inlet is designed to be "annular" for which bubbly flow in 70 mm tube is not observed in low water superficial velocities. However, this pattern is observed in higher water and lower air superficial velocities. For both tubes, the main flow regimes observed are bubbly, slug, churn and annular. The results obtained using image processing technique show that bubbly regime in 40 mm can be divided into three sub-patterns called dispersed, agitated and agglomerated bubbly. In addition, two sub-patterns are recognized in slug regime as large slug and small slug. Also semi-annular pattern is observed as an independent flow pattern in tube with inner diameter of 70 mm which has not been analyzed accurately up to now.