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Article
Two-Group Modeling of Interfacial Area Transport in Large Diameter Channels
Nuclear Engineering and Design
  • Joshua P. Schlegel, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • T. Hibiki
  • M. Ishii
Abstract

A comparison of the existing two-group interfacial area transport equation source and sink terms for large diameter channels with recently collected interfacial area concentration measurements (Schlegel et al., 2012, 2014. Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 47, 42) has indicated that the model does not perform well in predicting interfacial area transport outside of the range of flow conditions used in the original benchmarking effort. In order to reduce the error in the prediction of interfacial area concentration by the interfacial area transport equation, several constitutive relations have been updated including the turbulence model and relative velocity correlation. The transport equation utilizing these updated models has been modified by updating the inter-group transfer and Group 2 coalescence and disintegration kernels using an expanded range of experimental conditions extending to pipe sizes of 0.304 m [12 in.], gas velocities of up to nearly 11 m/s [36.1 ft/s] and liquid velocities of up to 2 m/s [6.56 ft/s], as well as conditions with both bubbly flow and cap-bubbly flow injection (Schlegel et al., 2012, 2014). The modifications to the transport equation have resulted in a decrease in the RMS error for void fraction and interfacial area concentration from 17.32% to 12.3% and 21.26% to 19.6%. The combined RMS error, for both void fraction and interfacial area concentration, is below 15% for most of the experiments used in the comparison, a distinct improvement over the previous version of the model.

Department(s)
Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science
Keywords and Phrases
  • Errors,
  • Flow of fluids,
  • Injection (oil wells),
  • Turbulence models,
  • Two phase flow,
  • Void fraction,
  • Constitutive relations,
  • Experimental conditions,
  • Interfacial area concentrations,
  • Interfacial area transport equation,
  • Interfacial area transports,
  • Liquid velocities,
  • Relative velocity,
  • Transport equation,
  • Transport properties
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2015 Elsevier, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
11-1-2015
Publication Date
01 Nov 2015
Disciplines
Citation Information
Joshua P. Schlegel, T. Hibiki and M. Ishii. "Two-Group Modeling of Interfacial Area Transport in Large Diameter Channels" Nuclear Engineering and Design Vol. 293 (2015) p. 75 - 86 ISSN: 0029-5493
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/joshua-schlegel/76/