Hiroshi Oiwa

Frictional drag reduction in bubbly Couette–Taylor flow

Frictional drag reduction due to the presence of small bubbles is investigated experimentally using a Couette–Taylor flow system; i.e., shear flow between concentric cylinders. Torque and bubble behavior are measured as a function of Reynolds number up to Re=5000 while air bubbles are injected constantly and rise through an array of vortical cells. Silicone oil is used to avoid the uncertain interfacial property of bubbles and to produce nearly monosized bubble distributions. The effect of drag reduction on sensitivity and power gain are assessed. The sensitivity exceeds unity at Re<2000, proving that the effect of the reduction in drag is greater than that of the reduction in mixture density. This is due to the accumulation of bubbles toward the rotating inner cylinder, which is little affected by turbulence. The power gain, which is defined by the power saving from the drag reduction per the pumping power of bubble injection, has a maximum value of O(10) at higher Re numbers around 2500. An image proces...

Bubble behavior in a vertical Taylor-Couette flow

Bubble distributions organized in a vertical Taylor-Couette flow are experimentally investigated. Modification of shear stress due to bubbles is measured with a torque sensor installed on the rotating inner cylinder. The wall shear stress decreases as bubbles are injected in all the tested range of Re from 600 to 4500. The drag reduction ratio per void fraction measured in the present experiment, which indicates net gain of the drag reduction, has been evaluated. The gain was more than unity for Re 4000. The maximum gain achieved was around 10 at Re = 600, at which point the bubbles dispersed widely on the inner cylinder surface and effectively restrict momentum exchange of fluid between the two walls. The expansion of Taylor vortices in the vertical direction by the presence of bubbles was confirmed by flow visualization including particle tracking velocimetry. Such bubble behaviours interacting with Taylor vortices are discussed in detail in this paper.

Backlight imaging tomography for gas–liquid two-phase flow in a helically coiled tube

Air–water two-phase flow in a helically coiled tube is investigated using backlight imaging tomography to elucidate the effect of centrifugal acceleration on phase distribution and interfacial structure. Superficial velocities up to 6 m s−1 in 20 mm diameter tube are tested. We focused on a slug flow regime in which centrifugal acceleration dominates the flow. The interfacial structure is visualized in six directions using a set of originally designed mirror-mounted water jackets. A temporal expansion image is made from line-sampled images and is used to reconstruct phase distribution through a linear backward projection algorithm. The present topography measurement showed various new features of gas–liquid two-phase flow in a helically coiled tube, such as a wall-covering effect in the case of high superficial velocity.

Flow Structure and Pressure Loss of Two-Phase Flow in Helically Coiled Tubes

In the steam generator of the prototype FBR (Fast Breeder Reactor) in Japan, heat exchange tubes of helical coil type are utilized. The gas-liquid two-phase flows in the helical coil tube have different characteristic from straight tubes due to the effects of centrifugal acceleration in the curved tubes. In our study, the interfacial structure of the gas-liquid two-phase flows in the helical coil tube is visualized to provide the flow pattern map. Simultaneously, the pressure loss and its local fluctuation are measured in order to investigate the dynamic characteristics of the two-phase flow appearing in the helical coil tube. The result reveals that the bubbly flow regime extends and the stratified flow vanishes compared the gas-liquid flow in a horizontal straight tube. Moreover, the slug flow has asymmetric structure due to the effect of centrifugal acceleration. On the contrary the pressure loss is basically not remarkably different from the straight tube except the fact that the pressure has a high fluctuation component.Copyright

Microbubble Drag Reduction Mechanism Observed in Taylor-Couette Flow

Microbubble drag reduction in Taylor-Couette flow system is investigated experimentally. We measured torque acting on rotating inner cylinder and evaluated the power gain of the drag reduction as function of Reynolds number from 600 to 4, 500. The results have shown that the gain increased up to 20 in the case that the bubble distribution organized by Taylor cell was altered from toroidal to spiral structures. This range coincided with the fact that the wavelength of the bubble-cluster spacing was elongated due to bubble-to-vortex interaction.

Frictional Drag Reduction Provided with Small Bubbles in Concentric Rotating Cylinders

The frictional drag reduction provided with small bubbles is investigated experimentally using vertical concentric cylinders. The friction reduction ratio is measured using a torque meter mounted on the inner cylinder for a wide range in Reynolds number from wavy vortex flow (WVF) to turbulent Taylor vortex flow (TTV). The present data show around 36% drag reduction in the case of WVF regime at Re =600 and the reduction maintains until Re =4 000. The friction reduction ratioη defined by the unit void fraction obeyed in a linear relation with inverse values of Froude number, and reached up to 10 in the best case, that implies the highest sensitivity for the drag reduction. The bubble distribution measured in the gap showed a peak near the inner cylinder surface resulting in high local shear stress reduction.

Measurement of Effective Viscosity in Bubbly Flow Using Free-Falling Sphere

Effective viscosity of bubbly two-phase flow is experimentally investigated by means of the falling sphere method. The terminal falling velocity of the sphere is measured by image processing to calculate the relative viscosity of the two-phase flow to the single-phase flow. The measurement results show that the effective viscosity is reduced for a range from 0 to 2% of void fraction as the shearing Weber number increases. This fact implies that the reduction of the effective viscosity is governed by the deformation of the bubbles, and the mechanism is explained by the interruption of the shear stress transfer in the two-phase medium.Copyright