Effect of gas density and surface tension on liquid film thickness in vertical upward disturbance wave flow

Zhang, H.*; Mori, Shoji*; Hisano, Tsutomu*; Yoshida, Hiroyuki  

At the gas-liquid interface, disturbance waves with various heights commonly arise. Because the thin liquid film between two successive disturbance waves leads to the dryout on the heating surface and limits the performance of the heating components, complete knowledge of the film thickness and disturbance waves is crucial. However, most existing experimental data and analysis are limited to near atmospheric conditions, and the liquid gas density ratio is much higher than in practical nuclear applications. In this study, we use nitrogen gas and water under the system pressures of 0.2 and 0.4 MPa and HFC134a gas and water under the system pressure of 0.7 MPa. The density ratio can be varied between 32 and 434. Based on experimental results, two models are proposed to predict the averaged film thickness and wave height, which are then compared with previous data.