Gas–liquid flow around an obstacle in a vertical pipe

This paper presents a novel technique to study the two-phase flow field around an asymmetric obstruction in a vertical pipe with a nominal diameter of DN200. Main feature of the experiments is the shifting of a half-moon shaped diaphragm causing the obstruction along the axis of the pipe. In this way, the 3D void field is scanned with a stationary wire-mesh sensor that supplies data with a spatial resolution of 3 mm over the cross-section and a measuring frequency of 2.5 kHz. Besides the measurement of time-averaged void fraction fields and bubble-size distributions, novel data evaluation methods were developed to extract estimated liquid velocity profiles as well as lateral components of bubble velocities from the wire-mesh sensor data. The combination of void fraction fields and velocity profiles offer the opportunity to analyse a two-phase flow in a geometry that owns a series of features characteristic for complex components of power and chemical plant equipment. Such characteristics are sharp edges with flow separation, recirculation areas, jet formation, stagnation points and curved stream-lines.The tests were performed with an air–water flow at nearly ambient conditions and with a saturated steam–water mixture at 6.5 MPa. The superficial velocities of liquid and gas or, respectively, vapour were varied in a wide range.The flow structure upstream and downstream of the obstacle is characterized in detail. Bubble size dependent effects of bubble accumulation and migration are discussed on basis of void-fraction profiles decomposed into bubble-size classes. A pronounced influence of the fluid parameters was found in the behaviour of bubbles at the boundary of the jet coming from the non-obstructed part of the cross-section. In case of an air–water flow, bubbles are restrained from entering the jet, a phenomenon which was not observed in high-pressure steam–water flow. A detailed uncertainty analyse of the velocity assessments finishes the presented paper. A blind pre-test calculation with CFX-10 based on the assumption of a mono-disperse bubbly flow has reproduced the overall void and velocity profiles. The results are used for the assessment of the influence of local accelerations on the liquid velocity measurement.