Experimental and numerical prediction of horizontal stratified flows

Slug flow as a multiphase flow regime can occur in the cold legs of pressurized water reactors, for instance after a small break Loss of Coolant Accident (SB-LOCA). Slug flow is potentially hazardous to the structure of the system due to the strong oscillating pressure levels formed behind the liquid slugs. It is usually characterized by an acceleration of the gaseous phase and by the transition of fast liquid slugs, which carry out a significant amount of liquid with high kinetic energy. For the experimental investigation of air/water flows, a horizontal channel with rectangular cross-section was build at Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (FZD). Experimental data were used to check the feasibility to predict the slugging phenomenon with the existing multiphase flow models build in ANSYS CFX. Further it is of interest to prove the understanding of the general fluid dynamic mechanism leading to slug flow and to identify the critical parameters affecting the main slug flow parameters (like e.g. slug length, frequency and propagation velocity; pressure drop).