A disturbance wave instability model for annular-to-intermittent flow transition in vertical two-phase flow system

Abstract

A model is developed to describe the transition from annular flow to intermittent flow in a vertical two-phase flow system. Since the instability of the disturbance wave, which is a dominant wave shape at the boundary between annular flow and intermittent flow, is considered as a governing mechanism, this instability described by the concept of hyperbolicity breaking in the characteristic equation is included in the model. The developed model is validated by comparing its predictions of gas superficial velocity for the transition with experimental data available in the literature, and comparing those with the predictions of the other correlations. The comparison results show that the model gives better predictions for the transition condition than existing correlations, and the effects of fluid properties, geometry and liquid flow rate on the transition are well considered by the developed model. The average of prediction errors is 3% for the present model. The standard deviation of the prediction errors of the model reaches 28%, which is the smallest among the models compared here.