First experimental results of measurements on air/water flow in a vertical pipe with an inner diameter of 194 mm

The new TOPFLOW facility of the Forschungszentrum Rossendorf allows investigations of two-phase flow phenomena in vertical pipes with an inner diameter up to 194 mm (DN200) and a length up to 8.5 m. The maximum water mass flow of 50 kg/s equals to a superficial velocity of 1.7 m/s in such a pipe, while the maximum air flow rate of 900 m3/h corresponds to a superficial velocity of 8 m/s. For the measurements presented here, a wire-mesh sensor with 64*64 measuring points was installed. It corresponds to a lateral resolution of 3 mm. The senor delivers instantaneous void fraction distributions over the entire cross section with a time resolution of 2500 frames per second, which can be used for fast flow visualisation as well as to obtain averaged void fraction profiles and bubble size distributions. Earlier, similar experiments were carried out at a 51.2 mm pipe. In this case, sensors with 16x16 and 24x24 points were applied. A comparison of the data obtained for the two diameters allows to identify the effects of scaling 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 to slug flow. In the bubble size distributions a second peak corresponding to the class of large Taylor bubbles respectively gas plugs was found in the slug flow region. In the large pipe at identical superficial velocities a similar behaviour was found, though the large bubble fraction has a significantly bigger mean diameter, the peak is less high but wider. This reflects the fact that large bubbles move more freely than in the small pipe. The transition from a mono-modal to a bimodal bubble size distribution starts in both pipes, if bubbles with an equivalent diameter larger 1/3 of the pipe diameter occur. Due to the less pronounced confining action of the pipe walls, the bubbles show much more deformations. Their shape can be complicated and far from an ideal Taylor bubble. The small bu