Experimental high-resolution database for co-current air-water flow in a vertical pipe

Measurements were conducted in a vertical pipe with an inner diameter of 51.2 mm and a length of about 3 m for air/water bubble and slug flow. The use of a wire-mesh sensor allows a high resolution of the gas fraction data in space as well as in time. From these data time averaged values for the two-dimensional gas fraction profiles decomposed according to a large number of bubble size classes were calculated. This allows to extract data for the radial gas fraction profiles for a given range of bubble sizes as well as data for local bubble size distributions. The measurements were done for up to 10 different inlet lengths and for about 100 combinations of gas and liquid volume flow rates. Further experiments are planned. The data will be used for the development of models for the forces acting on a bubble in a shear field of the liquid flow and models for bubble coalescence and break-up.