Non-Intrusive Optical Validation of Two-Phase Flow Regimes in a Small Diameter Tube

A non-intrusive optical method for two-phase flow pattern identification was developed to validate flow regime maps for two-phase adiabatic flow in a small diameter tube. Empirical measurements of film thickness have been shown to provide objective identification of the dominant two-phase flow regimes, representing a significant improvement over the traditional use of exclusively visual and verbal descriptions. Use of this technique has shown the Taitel-Dukler, Ullmann-Brauner, and Wojtan et al. phenomenological flow regime mapping methodologies to be applicable, with varying accuracy, to small diameter two-phase flow.