Two-phase flow measurement in an upward pipe flow using wire-mesh sensor technology

Jiao, L.; Takase, Kazuyuki; Liu, W.; Nagatake, Taku ; Uesawa, Shinichiro  ; Yoshida, Hiroyuki  ; Shibata, Mitsuhiko 

To construct a database for upwards air/water flows in a vertical pipe, extensive measurements of air/water flows in a vertical pipe using the wire-mesh sensor technology were conducted at the thermal fluid dynamic test facility TPTF of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The test section is 4m in length and 58mm in inner diameter, two sets of three-layers-WMS were set separately at the 1.15m and 1.65m elevation of the air injection position. Air was injected from the bottom of the pipe through 0.6mm/1mm/2mm diameter nozzles. The obtained data are characterized particularly by their quantity and their detailed information on important two-phase flow parameters (e.g. radial distribution of the void fraction, the gas velocity and the time and cross-section averaged bubble size distribution for different test section heights). In the near future, we would like to use the WMS to measure the detailed two-phase flow in sub-channels of a simulated bundle flow.