Influence of the pipe diameter on the structure of the gas-liquid interface in a vertical two-phase pipe flow

Two-phase flow tests in a 194.1 mm diameter vertical pipe (DN200) with an air-water mixture are reported. Close to the upper end of a 9 m tall test section a wire-mesh sensor is installed that delivers instantaneous void fraction distributions over the entire cross section with time resolution of 2500 frames per second. The sensor disposes of 64x64 measuring points, which corresponds to a spatial resolution of 3 mm. Beside an fast flow visualisations, void-fraction profiles and bubble size distributions were obtained. Earlier, similar experiments were carried out in a pipe of 51.2 mm inner diameter (DN50). A comparison of the data from the two different facilities allows to study the scaling effects on void fraction profiles, bubbles size distributions and the flow patterns. In the small pipe, the increase of the air flow rate leads to a transition from bubbly via slug to churn turbulent flow.
The transition to slug flow is accompanied by the appearance of a second peak in the bubble size distribution that corresponds to the class of large Taylor bubbles. A similar qualitative behaviour was found in the large pipe, though the large bubble fraction has a significantly bigger mean diameter at identical superficial velocities, the peak is less tall but wider. Bubbles move more freely than in the small pipe, since the confining action of the pipe walls to the flow is less pronounced, while the large Taylor bubbles occupy almost the entire cross section in case of the small pipe. Furthermore, the bubbles show much more deformations in the large pipe. Shapes of such large bubbles were characterised in three dimensions for the first time. They can rather be complicated and far from the shape of ideal Taylor bubbles. Also the small bubble fraction tends to bigger sizes in the large pipe.