Estimation of Average Void Fraction for Gas-Liquid, Two-Phase Flow in an Industrial Nozzle Assembly Using a Quick-Closing-Valve Available to Purchase

Experimentally accurate void fraction measurements are a challenge in an air/water, two-phase flows through an industrial nozzle assembly, as a highly non-uniform void fraction exists in the feeding conduit prior to the nozzle. In this study, average void fractions were measured by isolating a section in the feeding conduit of a horizontal nozzle assembly, termed as the quick-closing-valve (QCV) technique. A high-speed video camera was utilized to capture the asynchronization closing time, t_ac. The average closing time and asynchronization for the pneumatically controlled valves were 200 ms and 2 ms, respectively. Based on the equation of 100u_mt_ac (1−α)/αl_c, the synchronization error between the two valves was 1.12%, 1.26%, and 1.79% for the 1%, 2% and 4% ALR cases, respectively; here u_m is the mixture velocity, α is the void faction, and l_c is the closing length. Higher synchronization error at 4% ALR occurs due to enhanced momentum in the flow regime. Experimental results indicate that the average α over the 33.4 cm feeding conduit (6.25 mm ID) was 76% (α_theoretical = 75%) for the 2% ALR, and 85% (α_theoretical = 83%) for the 3.3% ALR. In the two-phase, two-component flow the α affects the drop size and stability of the spray produced from an industrial nozzle assembly. Learning from this study will yield insights and conceptual understanding of two-phase flow phenomena in conduit, which would affect stability, pulsation tendency, and possibly atomization performance of the nozzle downstream. Two-phase flow nozzles have wide applications in the industries, e.g. petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and others.