Annular flow film characteristics in variable gravity.

Annular flow is a frequently occurring flow regime in many industrial applications. The need for a better understanding of this flow regime is driven by the desire to improve the design of many terrestrial and space systems. Annular two-phase flow occurs in the mining and transportation of oil and natural gas, petrochemical processes, and boilers and condensers in heating and refrigeration systems. The flow regime is also anticipated during the refueling of space vehicles, and thermal management systems for space use. Annular flow is mainly inertia driven with little effect of buoyancy. However, the study of this flow regime is still desirable in a microgravity environment. The influence of gravity can create an unstable, chaotic film. The absence of gravity, therefore, allows for a more stable and axisymmetric film. Such conditions allow for the film characteristics to be easily studied at low gas flow rates. Previous studies conducted by the Microgravity Research Group dealt with varying the gas or liquid mass fluxes at a reduced gravitational acceleration.(1,2) The study described here continues this work by examining the effect of changing the gravitational acceleration (hypergravity) on the film characteristics. In particular, the film thickness and the associated pressure drops are examined. The film thickness was measured using a pair of two-wire conductance probes. Experimental data was collected over a range of annular flow set points by changing the liquid and gas mass flow rates, the liquid-to-gas density ratio and the gravitational acceleration. The liquid-to-gas density ratio was varied by collecting data with helium-water and air-water at the same flow rates. The gravitational effect was examined by collecting data during the microgravity and pull-up (hypergravity) portions of the parabolic flights.