Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

ISSN: 0022-3131 (Print) 1881-1248 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnst20

Vertically Downward Two-Phase Flow, (II)

Kensuke USUI

To cite this article: Kensuke USUI (1989) Vertically Downward Two-Phase Flow, (II), Journal of
Nuclear Science and Technology, 26:11, 1013-1022, DOI: 10.1080/18811248.1989.9734422

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18811248.1989.9734422

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 journal of NUCLEAR SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY, 26[11), pp. 1013-1022 (November 1989). 1013

Vertically Downward Two-Phase Flow, (II)

Flow Regime Transition Criteria

Kensuke USUI
Department of Mechanical Engineering II,
Shibaura Institute of Technology*

Received September 28, 1988

Revised March 3, 1989

Following Part (I) of the present paper, which presented the experimental results obtained
on the void distribution and average void fraction shown by nearly fully-developed, vertically
Downloaded by [118.96.165.96] at 18:54 16 October 2017

downward two-phase flow of air-water mixture, this Part (II) covers the flow regime transition
criteria among the three basic flow regimes: bubbly, slug and annular flows. The annular flow
further was divided into two subregions of falling film flow and annular drop flow. The general
situation of the transition criteria is as follows: (1) bubbly-to-slug flow transition occurs when
the local void fraction in the central region of the tube is 0.3; (2) slug-to-annular drop flow
transition criterion is given as a case which equations giving average void fraction for the slug
flow and the annular flow are simultaneously satisfied; (3) slug-to-falling film flow transition
occurs when the pressure difference between the crest of large wave and the bottom overcomes
the surface tension; (4) the occurrence of liquid droplets from wave crests gives the transition
criterion between the falling film flow and the annular drop flow.
These criteria were correlated to predict each flow regime boundary respectively considering
flow mechanisms or from experimental results. The correlations obtained were compared with
published flow regime maps for atmospheric air-water flow and showed satisfactory agreement.

KEYWORDS: downward two-phase flow, bubbly flow, slug flow, annular flow, falling
film flow, flow regime transition criterion, average void fraction, flow regime map

nearly fully-developed downward two-phase

I. INTRODUCTION
Downward two-phase flow in pipes, chan-
nels, components etc., is frequently en-
countered in many industrial apparatuses.
Since the direction of downward two-phase
flow is in opposition to that of the buoyancy
force acting on bubbles, flow mechanics would
be complicated compared with that of upward
two-phase flow. Yet, in many of studies on
the two-phase flow sufficient attention has not
been directed to downward flow. In order to
accomplish a good design of gas-liquid two-
phase flow systems such as boilers, reactors
and pipelines, accurate knowledge of down-
ward two-phase flow is required.
In Part (I)<Il of the present paper, an ex-
perimental study on void fraction distribution
and correlation of average void fraction m
-35-
flow was carried out. Correlations for the
average void fraction were obtained for each
flow regime, but the lack of criteria for flow
regime transition would limit the use of the
correlations. Studies on flow regime transi-
tion criteria for the vertically downward two-
phase flow have been performed by Golan &
Stenning< 2 l, Sekoguchi (3\ Oshinowo & Char-
les<l, Yamazaki & Yamaguchi<'>, Barnea et
at. <6 ) and Takemura et at. <7 ) They presented
flow regime maps obtained from experimental
observations and only Barnea et at. <6 l among
them proposed several physical mechanisms
for the transition boundaries. However, pre-
diction of flow regime transition boundaries
for vertically downward two-phase flow is up
to now an unresolved problem.
* Tameihara, Fukasaku, Omiya-shi 307.
 1014
The present paper reports on flow regime
transition criteria for vertically downward
two-phase flow of air-water mixture. The
flow regimes covered are bubbly, slug and
annular flows. Further, since the annular
flow takes a form of falling film flow at low
gas flow rate and annular drop flow at high
gas flow rate, the two flows were considered
individually. Correlations for criteria are pro-
posed considering flow mechanics or using
formulas of the average void fraction.
ll. EXPERIMENTAL EQUIPMENT
AND PROCEDURES
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The equipment used is of the same arrange-
ment as described in Part (I), where the details
are given.
Flow regimes were mainly classified on
the basis of visual observation and of many
photographs taken about 100 tube diameters
downstream from the bend exit (LJD=lOO).
In order to facilitate visual observation of the
flow phenomena occurring inside the tube, a
square acrylic resin box filled with water was
installed at observing position. This device
eliminated distortion of the image observed
from outside due to the "goldfish-bowl effect"
produced by the cylindrical surface of the
tube. Some typical examples of the photo-
graphs taken are shown in Part (I).
For the annular flow, measurements of the
instantaneous thickness of liquid film were
accomplished by means of a different con-
ductance method from that used in Part (I).
The device is shown schematically in Fig. 1.
In this method the film thickness was deter-
mined from the variation of electrical resis-
tance with changes in the liquid thickness
between a set of parallel electrodes. The
resistance acts as one resistance built into the
Wheatstone bridge circuit. The electrodes
consisted of two stainless-steel wires 0.06 mm
in diameter, stretched 5 mm apart on the
diameter of the tube. The device was oper-
ated from 3 VAC, 6 to 8kHz. It was found
that the response of the device was linear
over wide range of the change of liquid
thickness. This device was installed at L/ D
=100.
-36-
]. Nucl. Sci. Techno!.,
I
'
E
E
I
$
tn
t=' .
CDjill
(i)
CD Stainless steel wire (0.06 mm)
Insulated wire
Wheatstone bridge circuit
@ Amplifier, Oscilator
Recorder or synchroscope
(f) Liquid film
Fig. 1 Instrumentation for measuring
liquid film thickness
m. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION
1. Criteria for Flow Regime Transition
( 1) Bubbly to Slug Flow Transition
In the bubbly flow regime, as the concen-
tration of bubbles becomes high, the frequency
of collision of bubbles rises and so bubbles
coalescent. The turbulence in the wake which
occurs in front of a large bubble furthermore
prompts the occurrence of more large bubbles
known as a slug. It can be inferred that a
transition from bubbly flow to slug flow regime
occurs by means of this manner of the process.
Griffith & Snyder<a> substantiated experi-
mentally that observations of bubbly flow with
voids higher than 0.35 was apparently faulty
and such a flow was a result of entrance
conditions. Their experiments suggest that
the average void fraction at which the coales-
cence of bubbles happens is around 0.25 to
0.30. Taite! et al. <9 > used an average void
fraction of 0.25 as the transition criterion from
bubbly to slug flow and proposed a correlation
formula for upward flow. From these studies,
it can be inferred that the transition from
bubbly to slug flow occurs when the void
fraction in the tube reaches a certain value.
Mishima & Ishii<' 0 > showed that the coales-
cence of bubbles took place at a local void
fraction of 0.3 from a simple geometrical con-
sideration. Using this value, they gave a
 Vol. 26, No. 11 (Nov. 1989)
transition correlation for vertical upward flow
from the formula of the similar type with
Eq. ( 1) which will be shown below. But in
those analysis, they did not take into account
the effect of the void profile. The void pro-
files of downward bubbly flow are in a form
close upon a truncated cone as shown in Part
(1). In order to obtain a simple relation
between the local and the average void frac-
tions, the void profile was approximated with
the shape of the truncated cone, which was
constant at r!R<0.5 as shown in Fig. 2.
Assuming that, on the basis of the consider-
ation by Mishima & Ishii' 10 l, the coalescence
of bubbles takes place when the local void
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fraction in the central region of the tube is
0.3 and consequently the transition occurs,
the average void fraction at the transition is
0.175.
Actual
Approximated
d I
0.3
t
,~- -9
I [1-_s_ (1-a)16J7. Pa(!a)z]=o,
0,5 0 Cw
r/R
Fig. 2 Void profile in bubbly flow
It was approximately verified in the Part
(1)< 1 J that the average void fraction in nearly
fully-developed downward bubbly flow was
given by
(1-Coa)(j ahL)-Coa+ l.53a/(FrL Eo 1 ' 4 )
=0, ( 1)
where a is the average void fraction, j 0 jjL
is the ratio of the gas to liquid volumetric
velocity, FrL is the Froude number
FrL=j!-v'gD(pL-pa)!pL,
based on the liquid volumetric velocity, Eo is
the Eotvos number
Eo=(pL-p 0 )gD2/a,
and Co is the distribution parameter. (N.B. In
this paper, non-dimensional numbers will be taken
as positive for convenience' sake.) Substituting
-37-
1015
a=0.175 to Eq. ( 1) becomes
3.76(ja/h)+l.28/(FrL Eo 114 )=1. (2)
This equation would give the boundary for
bubble-to-slug flow transition.
( 2) Slug to Annular Flow Transition
The correlations for average void fraction
in slug flow and typical annular drop flow
were obtained in the Part (1)< 1 J as follows:
For slug flow
(1-Coa)(jaiJ'L)-Coa+Cta! FrL=O, ( 3)
where
C0 =1.2-1/(2.95+350Eo-L 3 ), ( 4)
and cl is the coefficient related to the drift
velocity. In downward flow with relatively
low Eotvos number, Eo<100, it was verified
that C1 was given by the Wallis's correlation
for rising bubbles in the stagnant liquid, i.e.
C1 =0.345[1-exp{(3.37- Eo)/10}], ( 5)
For annular drop flow
(1-a) 2317 -2CwFrl.
a' 12 PL )L
(6)
where Ci and Cw are the interfacial and wall
friction factors, respectively.
A boundary between the slug and annular
flows will be given as a case which Eqs. ( 3)
and ( 6) are simultaneously satisfied. In the
region of the transition boundary, as seen in
Part (I )(Il,
jaljL-z1 and a2;0.5,
and the value of Ci seems not to be so large
compared with that of Cw. Therefore, if
p 0 4:.pL, the second term in brackets on the
left-hand side of Eq. ( 6) can be neglected;
Eq. ( 6) reduces to
( 7)
This equation also gives the average void
fraction for the falling film flow as shown in
Part (I). In order to simplify a resultant
equation, Eq. ( 7) would be used instead of
Eq. ( 6 ). Then, by eliminating a in Eqs. ( 3 )
 1016 ]. Nucl. Sci. Techno!.,

and ( 7 ), a criterion for slug-to-annular drop

flow transition is given by
cl
CoFrL +
[ 1
{1-(2CwFr}Y 123 }Co
-1] J:a
}L

=1. ( 8)

In this paper, from the reason described

in Part (I)(ll, the churn flow is not classified
as an independent regime, included in the slug
flow regime. Thus a correlation for the tran-
sition from the slug to churn flow would not
be considered also in this Part< 1l, although the
churn flow is distinguished from the slug flow
based on the visual observation for reference
as shown in Fig. 10 which will be given later.
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( 3) Falling Film to Slug Flow Transition

At low flow rates of liquid and gas, the
liquid takes a free-fall situation and the inter-
face between the gas and liquid is relatively
smooth. This situation disappears as the liquid
flow rate increases, and the interface becomes
unstable and so a solitary wave grows abrupt-
ly. The sudden increase in the amplitude of
the large wave reduces the cross section of
the gas core so that the Bernoulli effect in-
creases the pressure difference between the
crest of the wave and the bottom. When this
pressure difference overcomes the surface
tension, the gas core is blocked by the liquid
at some location and the slug flow may occur.
On the basis of this consideration a criterion
for the falling film to slug flow would be
developed. Since it is difficult to obtain a
precise criterion, here an analysis would be
done approximately. In order to develop a cor-
relation for transition boundary, the following
assumptions are made: (1) the large wave
Fig. 3 Model of large wave
to those at downstream respectively, the
following relation is obtained:
(Pt-p.)(AL+Aa)-.,.DOLJzpLg
- VwpLg+-rw.,.DLlz=O, ( 9)
where Pt and P2 are the pressures at positions
CD and respectively. AL and Aa are the
cross-sectional areas of liquid and gas flows,
respectively. Llz is the length between CD and
, o the average liquid film thickness and V w
the volume of large wave.
If AL ~Aa and the gravity force on the
liquid film except the large wave is balanced
by the wall shear stress, i.e.
"'DoLlzpLY~"w"'DLlz,
then, Eq. ( 9) reduces to
Pt-P= V wPLYI Aa. (10)

takes an annular two-dimensional shape and
falls down at a constant velocity; (2) the gas
velocity is neglected and consequently the
interface shearing stress is not considered.
Considering the motion as seen by an observer
moving with the large wave, then, the gas
flows through a path with a constriction as
shown in Fig. 3.
From momentum balance in the flow direc-
tion for the region between positions CD and
in Fig. 3, if PLPa and the liquid film
thickness and velocity at CD upstream are equal
This suggests that the gravitational force
acting on the large wave is balanced by the
pressure difference (Pt-P2 ) across the wave.
The pressure difference is approximated by
the sum of enlargement and contraction losses
as:
(11)
where Uo is the gas velocity at the constric-
tion. ' and 'care the loss coefficients for
the enlargement and the contraction, respec-
tively.

-38-
 Vol. 26, No. 11 (Nov. 1989)
When the cross-sectional area of the gas
core at the constriction is sufficiently small
compared with that at the bottom of the large
wave, using Eq. (11) and A 0 l w"' V w, Eq. (10)
becomes
where l w is the width of the large wave.
For the radial direction, when the differ-
ence pressure between the crest of the wave
and the bottom overcomes the force due to
surface tension, the gas core is blocked by
the liquid. Therefore, a criterion giving the
falling film-to-slug flow transition is
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(1/2)p 0 (u~-uD (=2a cos() !lw)"-'a jl w. (13)
The interfacial velocity u; is approximated by
the average velocity of the falling film, if the
flow is turbulent; that is,
u;~jd(1-a).
Using Eqs. ( 7) and (12) to (14) yields
0.1
Fig. 4 Falling film-slug flow transition
( 4) Falling Film to Annular
Drop Flow Transition
As the gas flow rate increases in falling
film flow, the interface becomes unstable un-
der a certain condition in the shearing force
due to the gas flow and so the height of the
wave increases. Following the increase of
the wave height the liquid droplets begin to
occur from the wave crest, and after the peak
1017
1 PL
((,+(c) . (pL-pa)
_ _!_. f!_r;_ (2C w)-14/23. !!_Fr}_,aJ23"' _1_(.!!._
2 PL lw Eo lw
y.
(15)
(12)
Although there is no way to introduce a
equation giving the accurate relationship for
the transition, if l w"' D, and (e and (c are
about constant, Eq. (15) takes the form
(16)
where, K 1 and K 2 are constants and must be
determined experimentally. In Fig. 4, data
for the transition from falling film flow to
slug flow were given as a relation between
Froude number FrL and Eotvos number Eo
together with the results of Sekoguchi< 3 l,
Barnea<'l and Takemura et at.<n From the
results, values of 0.92 for K1 and 7.0 for K 2
(14)
were chosen for constants in Eq. (16) to fit data,
which was indicated by a solid line in Fig. 4.
Eo
of wave height, the height decreases with the
mean film thickness.
Figure 5 shows a typical example of the
relationship between the maximum height of
the wave and the superficial gas velocity for
D=16 mm. When the gas velocity is suffi-
ciently high, the shearing force due to the
gas flow tears away droplets of liquid from
wave crests. These droplets are entrained in
-39-
 1018 ]. Nucl. Sci. Techno!.,

8 D=16(mm)
jL(m/s) 6
Q
7 0 0.066

0.166
E 6
E
0 0.30 0

0.40
0.50 0
>< 6
<{ 51-
0.60 0
~
.c.
"
4


0

3
r..
~
2 0 0
0 0
0 0
0 ~.
t~
Downloaded by [118.96.165.96] at 18:54 16 October 2017

0 I I I
0.01 0.1 10 100
jiG I ( m/s)
Fig. 5 Example of wave height in annular flow

the gas flow. If the occurrence of liquid

I
droplets characterizes the annular drop flow,
the condition at the maximum height of wave '-)
may give the criterion of the boundary be- 1 t- _ : : ; l u g; Annular -
tween the falling film flow and the annular \
'o
drop flow. According to the experiments ~ 0.5 o
carried out in Part<'', the average void frac- E I q~
__, _______ ~' I '
'? .-p Eqs.(6)
#

tion of this condition is slightly higher than '. &(17)

o,~ ~
1
that of the falling film flow. Hence, using Falling film
the average void fraction for the falling film 0.1~--o0=16(mrn) -
flow given by Eq. ( 7 ), the average void frac-
- 24 ~
tion aw for the maximum height of wave was 0.05t- '.
assumed as follows : I
0.1 0.5 1 5 10
(17)
jiG I (m/s)
where K is a constant which is just slightly Fig. 6 Relation between h and ja
larger than unity. Substituting aw in Eq. (17) at maximum height of wave
for a in Eq. ( 6) produces a correlation which
gives the flow condition at the maximum film-to-annular drop flow transition criterion
height of wave. When the value of K was can be expressed by
determined to fit experimental data for the
(18)
maximum height of wave, it was well ap-
proximated by 1.0035. In Fig. 6, the result Hence, for the purpose of obtaining a simple
is shown by dotted line for D=16 mm and by correlation for the air-water flow, data for
solid line for D=24 mm together with experi- the maximum height of wave were plotted in
mental data. the form of the Froude number FrL against
From Eqs. ( 6) and (17), it will be found the velocity ratio j 0jjL as illustrated in
that, if Cw and pal pL are constant, falling Fig. 7.
-40-
 Vol. 26, No. 11 (Nov. 1989) 1019

based on the visual observation for the falling

I I I
film and the annular drop flows were plotted

//
.~ .r Eq,(t9)
0
o D=t6(mm)
14 on the flow regime map in the form of FrL
against j 0/jL. From the result, a criterion

.,
-fqs(6) (),
- &(17) eo, - with the same form to Eq. (19), was given
'-0,
empirically by
""
" 0"
(20)

0, A comparison between Eq. (20) and data ob-

0.1 ~
-~- tained from the visual observation is illustrated
in Fig. 10 which will be presented later.
rl ,/ 2. Comparison with Existing
10 tOO
iGI jl Transition Boundaries
The present flow regime criteria would be
Fig. 7 Relation between j 0 Jh and FrL
Downloaded by [118.96.165.96] at 18:54 16 October 2017

at maximum height of wave compared with existing transition boundaries.

Figure 8 illustrates the comparison of bubble-
The resulting relationship could be approxi- to-slug flow transition for air-water flow at
mately given by atmospheric pressure in the tubes with inside
diameters of different kinds. Although there
(19)
are some discrepancies in the boundary lines,
The result is shown by a solid line in Fig. 7 the present curve lies in the intermediate re-
together with that obtained from Eqs. ( 6) and gion between them. Especially, the agreement
(17), and data. They are almost identical. with the results of Oshinowo & Charles< 4 >,
However, the gas core already contains and Martin< 12 ' is good. Some discrepancies
some liquid droplets before the wave height may be due to the mixing methods of gas
reaches the maximum. Therefore, the criterion and liquid, the upstream configuration of the
which is judged from the visual observation channels, definitions of the flow regime, and
for the transition would be in the region so on. In addition, from observations, the
where the velocity ratio j 0/jL is lower than transition from one flow regime to the an-
that given by Eq. (19). The flow regime data other is gradual with respect to flow rates.

Source
= Oshinowo
--- Martin

w
0 ---- Sekoguchi

t..L
1.0

0.1 '-----'----'---'---'-'-..I....LI....L-__l__.J...._L..L.LJ....LJ..L_L__j--l.,_LJ......LJLl.J
0.01 0.1 . 1.0 10
jGJ JL
Fig. 8 Comparison of prediction with other maps for bubbly-slug transition

-41-
 1020 ]. Nucl. Sci. Techno!.,

Thus, transition boundaries should be under-
stood as a band with a certain width rather
than a single curve. This also would cause
the discrepancies.
Figure 9 illustrates the comparison of the
present criteria for the slug-to-annular flow
transition with several published transition
boundaries for the air-water flow at atmos-
pheric pressure in about 1 inch I. D. tubes.
The slug-to-annular drop flow transition for-
mula presented, i.e. Eq. ( 8) agrees well with
the boundaries between the slug flow and the
annular flow by Yamazaki & Yamaguchi< 5 >,
or the slug flow and the froth flow by Oshi-
nowo & Charles< 4 J except that by Sekoguchi<'J.
Downloaded by [118.96.165.96] at 18:54 16 October 2017
visually. A reason for the disagreement be-
tween Eq. ( 8 ) and the boundary by Seko-
guchi<'J would be as follows: the increase of
the gas flow rate makes the length of liquid
slugs shorten in the slug flow so that their
slugs become unstable, and collapse and crea-
tion of liquid slugs were reiterated irregularly.
This irregular region seemed to be the churn
(or froth) flow. As was indicated in Part (I)(IJ,
however, the boundary between the slug flow
and the churn flow did not appear clearly in
the change of average void fraction. When
liquid slugs vanish completely, the shift to
the annular drop flow appears to be relatively
sudden. Thus, the slug-to-churn flow regime

In higher gas flow rates adjoining the slug
flow, the description of the flow regime varies
considerably with different investigators. It
would be due to the fact that the boundaries
between the slug and the churn (or froth)
flows and between the churn and the annular
drop flows are difficult to be distinguished
transition is rather indefinite though the exis-
tence of the churn flow is qualitatively under-
stood. In the present paper, the churn flow
was included in the slug flow, considered as
an agitated one as described previously. Be-
cause of such an indefiniteness, considerable
discrepancies would exist in the region.

D=25-26(mml
.... (Eq.(8)
Eo=84.5- 91.4
....

.J
...,_..-~-
"
(s' ug )o.v.s "- ,
- "".( '-,..- ( Whispy annuladv
'I
,, ...__
~._(Annularj;,
,, (
--
)
'-- Slug "'-, ~~~- - _ _ Froth o,s
LL
1.0 ""
,=_ .\_.. .,;;-;;;;.:;;-:-.:. ::-.: .::4,.~-
~
''~~--- _-:.::------
1
Eq(16) ' film)o
(Annularls ~
1
(Wetled-wa\llv
\ ~. Annular drop
Falling film ', ~.:-,.
,., /Eq.(20l
(Falling film lo , ,.
Source Flow regime ' "",..,
= Oshinowo ( lo
--- Yamazaki ( ly .,
--- Sekoguchi ( ls

0.1 1.0 10 100

jG/ h
Fig. 9 Comparison of prediction with other maps for slug-annular transition

At low gas and liquid flow rates the fall-
ing film flow appears. The correlation for
the slug-to-falling film flow transition was
determined based on data ranging from 10 to
50 mm in tube diameter. The boundary of
Sekoguchi<'J is shown in Fig. 9, where the
agreement with the present correlation is good.
At low liquid flow rates, Oshinowo &
Charles< 4 J classified flow regime into falling
film and falling bubbly-film flows. In the

-42-
 Vol. 26, No. 11 (Nov. 1989)
former, both gas and liquid flow: rates are
usually low and the gas core contains no
liquid droplets. On the other hand, in the
latter, gas flow r.ate is higher and the liquid
film contains small dispersed air bubbles.
Furthermore, the shearing action of the gas
flow is now becoming more important and the
gas core contains liquid droplets. As seen in
Fig. 9, a boundary line between these flow
regimes agrees approximately with the tran-
0= 24 (mm)
Eo= 77.8
Downloaded by [118.96.165.96] at 18:54 16 October 2017
.J 0 0
....
lL
Eq.(JG)\ 0
0 Bubbly
0 Slug
<> Churn
6 Falling film
0.1 0 Annular
0.01 0.1
Fig. 10 Example of comparison of prediction with observed flow pattern
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
For the vertically downward two-phase
flow, flow regime criteria are developed con-
sidering some mechanisms of flow transition
and from the experimental data. Several flow
regime maps have been proposed up to now.
However, most of those are based primarily
on visual observation and the criteria are not
given in the form of equation. In the present
study, the criteria are correlated by means of
the non-dimensional numbers and are compared
with independent literature data for air-water
flow at low pressure. There appears to be
no published data available for testing the
present correlation over a wide range of tube
diameter, channel configuration and fluid prop-
erties. The summary and conclusions on the
flow regime boundaries are as follows :
(1) The bubbly-to-slug flow transition crite-
rion was derived from the drift flux equa-
-43-
1021
Slt!On line between the falling film and the
annular drop flow given in the present study.
From this it can be inferred that the two
boundaries show about the same one.
In order to test general applicability of the
obtained correlation, data of flow patterns
taken in 24 mm diameter tube are presented
in Fig. 10, together with the present boundary
lines. The figure shows that the prediction
is in excellent agreement with the data.
10 100
jG I j L
tion by assuming that the phase distribution
is expressed by the truncated cone and the
coalescence of bubbles occurs at the void
fraction of 0.3 in the central region of the
tube. The comparison of the present cri-
terion with the data taken over tube diam-
eters from 10 to 140 mm showed relatively
good agreement.
(2) The slug-to-annular drop flow transition
criterion was given as a case which the
formulas of the average void fraction for
the slug and annular flows were simultane-
ously satisfied. The applicable range of
this criterion is due to the validity of the
correlation equation for the average void
fraction of the slug flow and the annular
flow given in Part ( 1) 0 l. So further in-
vestigations will be necessary to ascertain
the application of these equations to other
flow conditions.
(3) The slug-to-falling film flow transition
 1022 ]. Nucl. Sci. Techno!.,

boundary correlation was obtained from a Surface tension

a: (N/m)
simple theory based on the Bernoulli and r : Shear stress (Pa)
surface tension effects acting on the large (Subscripts)
G : Gas phase, i: interface
wave, and on the basis of data of several L: Liquid phase, w: wall, wave
investigators ranging from 10 to 50 mm in
tube diameter. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(4) Further, a transition boundary between
The author wishes to acknowledge the
the falling film and annular drop flow was
advice and encouragement received from Prof.
obtained empirically from the experimental
T. Hanawa, Prof. K. Sato and Prof. Y. Oguchi
results of the maximum height of the wave,
of Shibaura Institute of Technology, and Prof.
which was taken for tube diameters 16 and
A. Inoue and Prof. M. Aritomi of Tokyo In-
24mm.
stitute of Technology, and Mr. T. Takahara
[NOMENCLATURE] and Mr. K. Nojiri for the assistance during
A : Cross-sectional area the progress of this study.
Downloaded by [118.96.165.96] at 18:54 16 October 2017

C : Friction factor
C0 : Distribution parameter ---REFERENCEs---
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