Patterns slug flow

Figure 1.2 Normal and focused multilamination flow patterns, slug flow composed of gas/liquid segments (Taylor flow ), and ordered foam flow ( hexagon flow ) (from top to bottom).

Flow Regimes in Multiphase Reactors. Reactant contacting, product separations, rates of mass and heat transport, and ultimately reaction conversion and product yields are strong functions of the gas and Hquid flow patterns within the reactors. The nomenclature of commonly observed flow patterns or flow regimes reflects observed flow characteristics, ie, armular, bubbly, plug, slug, spray, stratified, and wavy. 

In vertical flow, axial symmetry exists and flow patterns tend to be somewhat more stable. However, with slug flow in particular, oscillations in the flow can occur as a result of sudden changes in pressure as liquid slugs are discharged from the end of the pipe. 

The first flow pattern zone corresponds to the isolated bubble (IB) regime where the bubble generation rate is much higher than the coalescence rate. It includes both bubbly flow and/or slug flows and is present up to the onset of coalescence process domination. The second zone is the coalescing bubble (CB) regime, which is... 

As demonstrated in Fig. 5.7, the result indicates that two-phase flow patterns observed in a 100 pm quartz tube are almost similar to those observed in a 25 pm silica capillary tube with several exceptions. One such exceptions is that in slug flow encountered at low velocities, small liquid droplets in a gas slug stick to the tube wall (Fig. 5.8). This fact is evidence that no liquid film exisfs befween fhe gas slug and the tube wall. 

The flow regime maps shown in Fig. 5.16a,b indicate that typical flow patterns encountered in the conventional, large-sized vertical circular tubes, such as bubbly flow, slug flow, churn flow and annular flow, were also observed in the channels having larger hydraulic diameters ([Pg.216]

This class of hybrid components comprises chip micro-reactor devices, as described in Section 4.1.3, connected to conventional tubing. This may be H PLC tubing which sometimes has as small internals as micro channels themselves. The main function of the tubing is to provide longer residence times. Sometimes, flow through the tube produces characteristic flow patterns such as in slug-flow tube reactors. Chip-tube micro reactors are typical examples of multi-scale architecture (assembly of components of hybrid origin). 

Figure 5.6 Flow pattern map for a gas/liquid flow regime in micro channels. Annular flow wavy annular flow (WA) wavy annular-dry flow (WAD) slug flow bubbly flow annular-dry flow (AD). Transition lines for nitrogen/acetonitrile flows in a triangular channel (224 pm) (solid line). Transition lines for air/water flows in triangular channels (1.097 mm) (dashed lines). Region 2 presents flow conditions in the dual-channel reactor ( ), with the acetonitrile/nitrogen system between the limits of channeling (I) and partially dried walls (III). Flow conditions in rectangular channels for a 32-channel reactor (150 pm) (T) and singlechannel reactor (500 pm) (A) [13].

Pattern transition in vertical adiabatic flow. Upward vertical flow has been studied intensively, both because of the simplicity of the geometric condition and the relevance in applications. The map shown in Figure 3.4 is the result of rather recent and relevant studies into the interpretation of regime transition mechanisms. In this figure, the transition between bubbly flow and slug flow occurs be-... 

Additional research on the prediction of flow patterns is a necessity, for until detailed stability criteria are developed for the transition from one flow pattern to another, there is no alternative to the empirical flow pattern charts. Some progress in theoretically defining the transition from stratified to wavy or slug flow has been made by Russell and Etchells (R3). Inaccuracy and uncertainty in flow pattern prediction makes estimation of the in situ hydrodynamic quantities and the rate of heat transfer a difficult task. 

Some detailed analyses of the mechanics of vertical slug flow (N4, G8) and vertical annular flow (A2, Cl, C6, LI) have appeared in recent years, and give a clearer picture of the microscopic behavior in these patterns. In general, this type of analysis is yielding better results with many vertical flow patterns because of their radial symmetry, than with horizontal flow patterns. 

Wallis points out that, from continuity considerations and bubble dynamics, the cocurrent flow of uniformly dispersed bubbles as a discontinuous phase in a liquid can always be made to occur in any system and for any void volume. (This is not true for countercurrent flow.) Coalescence of bubbles may occur, of course, and if this coalescence is sufiiciently rapid, a developing type of flow is observed, usually from bubble to slug flow. Because of this behavior, the particular flow pattern observed in bubble flow is quite dependent on the previous history of the two-phase mixture. This would be true for both horizontal and vertical flow. 

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