Experimental Study of Hydrodynamics of Slug Flow Pattern in Vertical Upward Pipes

Present research has been done with the aim of investigating hydrodynamic behavior of slug flows in a transparent acrylic tube with inner diameter of 40 mm and height of 3.33 m. The vertical experimental system constructed in Two-Phase Flow lab in Tarbiat Modares University was used to perform needed experiments. By using image processing technique, recorded movies of flow structures were analyzed and some important characteristics of slug flow such as length and velocity of Taylor bubbles and liquid slugs between them were extracted. In addition, the average path line of Taylor bubble nose was computed in a proper range of the tube length. The acquired probability density functions show that there is a direct relationship between the increasing of Taylor bubble length and liquid slug length moving after it. Also rising velocity of shorter Taylor bubbles is more than longer ones. Results show that bubble nose does not violate ± 20 % around the center line of the tube. An experimental correlation based on the Taylor bubble velocity and total superficial velocities of phases is presented which shows that the famous Nicklen correlation does not work well for this tube diameter.