Experimental Investigation on Liquid Holdup and Interfacial Shear Stress in an Air-Oil Wavy Flow in a Macro-Channel

In this study, frictional pressure drops and wavy flow patterns were measured for an air-oil two-phase flow in a macro-channel with an inner diameter of 40 mm. The interfacial shear stress was calculated using a stratified flow model in which the liquid holdup was measured through post-processing of captured flow images. A correlation for the relationship between the Lockhart-Martinelli parameter and the liquid holdup was proposed. This study also examined the relationship between the interfacial friction factor and flow conditions, and proposed a predictive correlation for the interfacial friction factor based on the superficial gas Reynolds number. The variation in interfacial shear stress corresponding to interfacial waviness was also compared with representative flow images obtained in the experiments.