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

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

To construct a validation database for the two-phase flow numerical simulation codes, the wire-mesh sensor (WMS) technology was used to measure the air/water flows in an upward vertical pipe at the thermal fluid dynamic test facility of the JAEA. The test section is 4 m in length and 58 mm in inner diameter (D), two sets of three-layers-WMS were set separately at the elevations 20D and 28.5D from the air injection position. Different flow patterns are realized, e.g. bubbly flow, slug flow by changing the combination of air and water flow rate and consequently high reliability of the measured data was guaranteed. The wire influence on the flow was also evaluated in the present study. A new bubble-rising-velocity evaluation method was proposed by using the local WMS signal correlation method, which can provide more reliable bubble rising velocity than the correlation method used by other researches. The bubble distribution and rising velocity data can be used for the validation of CFD-like models for two-phase flows.