CFD calculation of new TOPFLOW hot leg experiments

Usually, the slug flow regime is characterized by an acceleration of the gaseous phase and by the transition of fast liquid slugs, which carry a significant amount of liquid with high kinetic energy. It is potentially hazardous to the structure of a system due to the strong oscillating pressure levels formed behind the liquid slugs as well as the mechanical momentum of the slugs. Because slug flow cannot be predicted with the required accuracy and spatial resolution by the one-dimensional system codes, the stratified flows are increasingly modelled with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. In CFD, closure models are required that must be validated. The recent improvements of the multiphase flow modelling in the ANSYS CFX code make it now possible to simulate these mechanisms in detail. In order to validate existing and further developed multiphase flow models, high-resolution measurement data is needed in time and also in space.

Thanks to the optical access of the test channels built at Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, it is possible to study detailed local stratified air/water flow phenomena. These experimental results give an important input for two-phase flow CFD model validation (i.e. interfacial momentum transfer, turbulent profiles of each phase). For the experimental investigation of co-current air/water flows, the HAWAC (Horizontal Air/Water Channel) was built (Fig. 1). Its inlet device provides defined inlet boundary conditions for code comparison. The channel allows in particular the study of air/water slug flow under atmospheric pressure. A flow pattern map (Fig. 2) was arranged constructed on the basis of a visual observation of the flow structure at different combinations of the gas and liquid superficial velocities. Parallel to the experiments, CFD calculations were carried out. A picture sequence recorded during slug flow was compared with the equivalent CFD simulation made (Figs. 3 and 4). The two-fluid model was applied with a special turbulence damping procedure at the free surface. An Algebraic Interfacial Area Density (AIAD) model on the basis of the implemented mixture model was introduced, which allows the detection of the morphological form of the two phase flow and the corresponding switching via a blending function of each correlation from one object pair to another. As a result this model can distinguish between bubbles, droplets and the free surface using the local liquid phase volume fraction value.

The behaviour of slug generation and propagation at the experimental setup was qualitatively reproduced by the simulation, while local deviations require a continuation of the work. The creation of small instabilities due to pressure surge or an increase of interfacial momentum should be analysed in the future. Furthermore, experiments like pressure and velocity measurements are planned and will allow quantitative comparisons, also at other superficial velocities.