Mixing and flooding in vertical gas-liquid countercurrent flow through parallel paths

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:5336402

Liu, C P

Vertical gas-liquid countercurrent flow through multiple paths is employed extensively in chemical industries for mass transfer purposes. Under a different set of circumstances, gas-liquid countercurrent flow may occur inside a light water reactor during a hypothetical loss-of-coolant accident. The counterflowing streams usually assume either a separated flow or an active mixing configuration. The onset of mixing is therefore of interest because it marks the transition from a weak gas-liquid interaction to a strong one. For mass transfer purposes, mixing is desirable for promoting further gas-liquid contact. But for reactor safety, a strong gas-liquid interaction may hamper the coolant delivery to the reactor core, which may be detrimental to the core refilling and cooling process. A series of experiments were performed to characterize the onset of mixing in multiple-path flow.. The experimental results showed that multiple-path flow possesses mixing characterics similar to those for single-channel flow and the resulting flow-rate pairs can be correlated by the Wallis and the Wallis-Kutateladze correlation. In addition, there is some secondary behavior unique to the multiple-path flow. The path inlet configuration and path surface roughness both have a significant influence on the onset of mixing. A modeling precedure was developed in this work to analyze the onset of mixing, and has produced algebraic solutions which are in qualitative agreement with the actual testing results. Based on the analysis, the Wallis and the Wallis-Kutateladze correlation may be interpreted as a dynamic similarity condition for the occurrence of certain events in a two-phase countercurrent flow system.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Berkeley (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5336402
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220900* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
ACCIDENTS
COOLING SYSTEMS
DELIVERY
ENERGY SYSTEMS
FLUID FLOW
HYPOTHESIS
LOSS OF COOLANT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MIXING
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS
REACTOR CORES
REACTORS
WATER COOLED REACTORS