Visualization Experiments of a Specific Fuel Flow Through Quartz-glass Tubes Under both Sub- and Supercritical Conditions

The present work is a visualization study of a typical kerosene (RP-3) flowing through vertical and horizontal quartz-glass tubes under both sub- and supercritical conditions by a high speed camera. The experiments are accomplished at temperatures of 300-730 K under pressures from 0.107-5 MPa. Six distinctive two-phase flow patterns are observed in upward flow and the critical point of RP-3 is identified as critical pressure pc=2.33 MPa and critical temperature Tc=645.04 K and it is found that when the fluid pressure exceeds 2.33 MPa the flow can be considered as a single phase flow. The critical opalescence phenomenon of RP-3 is observed when the temperature is between 643.16 K and 648.61 K and the pressure is between 2.308 MPa and 2.366 MPa. The region filled by the critical opalescence in the upward flow is clearly larger than that in the downward flow due to the interaction between the buoyancy force and fluid inertia. Morecover, obvious layered flow phenomenon is observed in horizontal flow under supercritical pressures due to the differences of gravity and density.