Interfacial and wall friction factors of swirling annular flow in a vertical pipe

Experiments on air-water two-phase swirling annular flows in a vertical pipe of 40 mm diameter were carried out at atmospheric pressure and room temperature to investigate interfacial and wall friction factors, fi and fw. The friction factors were evaluated using measured pressure drops and void fractions. Measurements of liquid film thickness and flow observation were also conducted. The ranges of the gas and liquid volume fluxes, JG and JL, were 12.5 ≤ JG ≤ 20.0 m/s and 0.03 ≤  JL ≤ 0.11 m/s, respectively. The main conclusions obtained are as follows: (1) fi and fw in swirling annular flows are several times larger than those in non-swirling flows, (2) fi is well correlated in terms of the liquid volume fraction and the gas Reynolds number, ReG, (3) ReG and the liquid Reynolds number, ReL, are required for correlating fw, and (4) the liquid film thicknesses in two-phase swirling flows in a one-fifth model of a BWR separator are well predicted using the two-fluid model and the correlations of fi and fw developed based on the experimental data.