Holdup and Pressure Drop in Liquid-Loading Gas-Liquid Flow
Liu Lei,Zhou Fangde,Wang Yueshe
(School of Energy and Power Engineering,Xi'an Jiaotong Unviersity,Xi'an 710049,China)

Abstract:Liquid-loading flow is a particular case of two-phase upward flow. Holdup and pressure drop of liquid-loading flow (including slug flow,churn flow and blowout) were investigated in a vertical tube, using different fluids as liquid phase. Experimental data show that for different fluids the liquid holdup in liquid-loading flow decreases logarithmically with the increase of the non-dimensionless gas flux defined as the ratio of gas flux to critical flux. The total pressure drop also varies logarithmically with gas flux. Meanwhile, it was found that the frictional pressure drop of liquidª²loading flow is negative and has a minimum value. The relationship curve, which is of the gas flux and the ratio of frictional pressure drop to total pressure drop, has inflexion point. This inflexion corresponds to the transition from slug flow to churn flow.
Keywords: complex flow;two-phase flow;flow pattern;holdup;pressure drop