Interfacial area concentration in boiling bubbly flow systems

The interfacial area, which describes available area for the interfacial transfer of mass, momentum and energy, is a crucial parameter in a two-fluid model formulation. From this point of view, this study performed (i) extensive survey on existing models and correlations developed for boiling bubbly flows, (ii) extensive survey on existing interfacial area database for boiling bubbly flows, (iii) formulation of the physical model based on bubble number density transport equation, (iv) simplification of the model to identify the dominant parameters governing the interfacial area, and (v) finalization of the model based on the collected extensive data and development of the interfacial area correlation. The developed correlation of the interfacial area concentration agreed with 569 adiabatic flow data and 343 boiling flow data within averaged relative deviations of ±21.1%±21.1% and ±31.0%±31.0%, respectively.