Experimental and comparative study on the two-phase pressure drop of air-water mixture in U-bend and straight pipe annuli

Abstract

In this paper, the experimental and theoretical analysis of pressure drop in single-phase and two phase-flow were presented for straight and U-bend smooth tube annulus and tube annulus with wire coil insert. Experiments for various boundary conditions were performed. In case of U-tube and straight tube with and without turbulator, tests were made for the water-water and air-water systems. The study covered a wide measuring range, i.e. Vw = 9∗10-5-8.87∗10-6 m3/s - for water, and Va = 5.55∗10-5 m3/s.-for air. The test elements were made from a copper pipe with an external diameter of 10 mm and 18 mm and wall thickness 1 mm. The helicoidal vortex generator was made from brass wire with a diameter of 2.4 mm, coil diameter 13 mm and pitch 11 mm. For these geometries, the values of pressure drop and heat flux were determined. Obtained experimental results were compared with correlations from literature. The best coherence with database were obtain for Lockhart-Martinelli and Sugawar et al. models for two-phase flow regime.