Different Modes of Gas Entrainment Through Bottom Discharge Branch by Using Three Dimensional Particle Image Velocimetry System

The discharge of two-phase flow from a stratified region through single or multiple branches is an important process in many industrial applications including the pumping of fluid from storage tanks, shell-and-tube heat exchangers, and the fluid flow through small breaks in cooling channels of nuclear reactors during loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCA). Knowledge of the flow phenomena involved along with the quality and mass flow rate of the discharging stream(s) is necessary to adequately predict the different phenomena associated with the process. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) in three dimension was used to provide detailed measurements of the flow patterns involving distributions of mean velocity, vorticity field, and flow structure. The experimental investigation was carried out to simulate two phase discharge from a stratified region through branches located on a semi-circular wall configuration during LOCA scenarios. The semi-circular test section is in close dimensional resemblance with that of a CANDU header-feeder system, with branches mounted at orientation angles of zero, 45 and 90 degrees from the horizontal. The experimental data for the phase development (mean velocity, flow structure, etc.) was done during single discharge through the bottom branch from an air/water stratified region over a three selected Froude numbers. These measurements were used to describe the effect of outlet flow conditions on phase redistribution in headers and understand the entrainment phenomena.