STRATIFIED TURBULENT-TURBULENT GAS-LIQUID FLOW

This paper is an experimental and theoretical study of horizontal stratified gas‐liquid two phase flow in a circular tube. Both phases are considered to be in turbulent flow, and the liquid phase flow field is modeled by applying eddy viscosity expressions developed for single phase flow. The pressure drop and in situ volume of liquid are predicted from the gas and liquid flow rates, physical properties, and pipe size by means of an iterative procedure which terminates when calculated gas and liquid pressure drops match. The iterative design procedure is compared with new data for air‐water flow in a smooth tube of 63.5 mm ID and with data available in the literature. For conditions corresponding to small amplitude interfacial waves, the average deviation between predicted and experimental results is 24.3% for the pressure drop and 7.7% for the holdup. For roll wave conditions, the corresponding average deviations are 4.6 and 26.4% for pressure drop and holdup, respectively. These results are substantially better than the predictions obtained using the Lockhart‐Martinelli correlations. Copyright © 1979 American Institute of Chemical Engineers