Experimental Investigation and Empirical Correlations of Heat Transfer in Different Regimes of Air-Water Two-Phase Flow in a Horizontal Tube

This article reports on the experimental investigation of heat transfer to cocurrent air-water two-phase flow in a horizontal tube. The idea is to enhance heat transfer to the coolant liquid by air injection. Experiments were conducted for different air water ratios in constant temperature heated tube. Visual identification of flow regimes was supplemented. The effects of the liquid and gas superficial velocities and the flow regimes on the heat transfer coefficients were investigated. The results showed that the heat transfer coefficient generally increases with the increase of the injected air flow rate, and the enhancement is more significant at low water flow rates. A maximum value of the two-phase heat transfer coefficient was observed at the transition to wavy-annular flow as the air superficial Reynolds number increases for a fixed water flow rate. It was noticed that the Nusselt number increased about three times due to the injection of air at low water Reynolds number. Correlations for heat transfer by air-water two-phase flow were deduced in dimensionless form for different flow regimes.