Flow structure and bubble characteristics of steam–water two-phase flow in a large-diameter pipe Original Research Article

The flow structure and bubble characteristics of steam–water two-phase upward flow were observed in a vertical pipe 155 mm in inner diameter. Experiments were conducted under volumetric flux conditions of JG<0.25 m s−1 and JL<0.6 m s−1, and three different inlet boundary conditions to investigate the developing state of the flow. The radial distributions of flow structure, such as void fraction, bubble chord length and gas velocity, were obtained by horizontally traversing optical dual void probes through the pipe. The spectra of bubble chord length and gas velocity were also obtained to study the characteristics of bubbles in detail. Overall, an empirical database of the multi-dimensional flow structure of two-phase flow in a large-diameter pipe was obtained. The void profiles converged to a so-called core-shaped distribution and the flow reached a quasi-developed state within a relatively short height-to-diameter aspect ratio of about H/D=4 compared to a small-diameter pipe flow. The PDF histogram profiles of bubble chord length and gas velocity could be approximated fairly well by a model function using a gamma distribution and log–normal distribution, respectively. Finally, the correlation of Sauter mean bubble diameter was derived as a function of local void fraction, pressure, surface tension and density. With this correlation, cross sectional averaged bubble diameter was predicted with high accuracy compared to the existing constitutive equation mainly being used in best-estimate codes.