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An experimental investigation is conducted to study the effect of middle length and inclination angle of an S-shaped channel on adiabatic two-phase flow patterns. To study this effect, three channel lengths of 0.25, 0.50, and 1.00m, and four bends at the angles of 22.5°, 45°, 67.5° and 90° were used along the test section which is 35.83m long. The channel cross section dimensions were 0.05×0.10m and the test fluids were air and water. The observed flow patterns in 12 cases were studied. Each flow pattern was identified by visual observation and recorded with video camera for further analysis of the collected data points. The momentum transfer phenomenon between the phases for passing the upward middle section along the S-shaped channel was closely investigated. Five flow patterns of vortex plug, vortex slug, vortex wavy-annular, churn and mist packet annular were observed. The vortex type flow patterns were recorded with high speed video camera. The physical mechanisms and momentum transfer related to formation of these flow patterns were explained in detail. Flow pattern maps were obtained and then compared for different middle lengths and inclination angles to perform a parametric study on the S-shaped channel. Moreover, effect of upstream/downstream of the S-shaped channel on the maps and transition lines were discussed. It was revealed that upstream effects reflect the interactions and momentum transfer between the phases. Therefore, flow pattern types mainly depend on upstream behavior. On the other hand, the amount of backward flow resulting in the establishment of countercurrent flow and creation of vortexes along middle section is determined by downstream effects. Increasing the middle length or inclination angle causes the transition to vortex plug flow pattern to occur at higher liquid velocities. It also causes the area with churn flow pattern on the map to expand ending in smaller vortex slug flow pattern area. However, increasing middle length or decreasing inclination angle, ends in smaller area of mist packet annular area. It is also observed that for higher middle lengths, increasing the inclination angle shifts the transition lines more remarkably. A dimensionless analysis of obtained flow pattern maps is also carried out. It is shown that effect of geometry changes along S-shaped pipeline on two-phase flow pattern transitions is determined by either inclination angle or elevation difference between two horizontal lines. The explained flow mechanisms, obtained flow pattern maps and the transition lines can be used to predict the particular flow pattern that will be established for a given mass flux, inclined length and angle along pipelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The properties of spray-induced vortex-like structures for asymmetric pressure swirl atomizer were studied experimentally with different injection pressures. The high-speed Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) was used to study the spray characteristics such as velocity and vorticity. The vortex centers were identified by velocity weighted vorticity. The translational velocity components of vortex centers were computed from its displacement divided by the time interval. For five different pressure conditions, the motion trajectories of vortex center were the same in an earlier period of spray, but were different in a later period of spray. The normalized translational velocity of vortex center and normalized time were introduced to compare with vortex ring model. The results indicated that the normalized axial translational velocity decreased with increasing normalized time, which converged to the predictions of the model in long time limit where α = -0.75 in the turbulent case. However, the results for the normalized radial translational velocity were different from the predictions of the model. The normalized radial translational velocity decreased with the increase of the normalized time when the injection pressure was lower than a critical value, but it obviously increased with the increase of the normalized time in case of the injection pressure higher than the critical value. Furthermore, the average vorticities at the vortex center were obtained and increased with the increase of the injection pressure. This study provides references for developing spray theory and improving injection technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The multi-scale structures of turbulent wakes generated by three kinds of bluff body, i.e. circular cylinder, square cylinder and compound of cylinder and square (CS) cylinders, have been experimentally investigated in this paper. Firstly, the instantaneous velocity fields and vorticity were measured by the high-speed PIV technique in a circulating water channel. The instantaneous streamlines and corresponding normalized vorticity contours are obtained at a Reynolds number of 5600. Then one- and two-dimensional wavelet multi-resolution technique was used to analyze the instantaneous velocities and vorticity measured by the high-speed PIV. The turbulence structures were separated into a number of subsets based on their central frequencies, which are linked with the turbulence scales. The instantaneous vorticity and Reynolds shear stresses of various scales were examined and compared between the three generators. It is found that the large-scale turbulent structure makes the largest contribution to the vorticity and Reynolds shear stresses for the three wake generators and exhibits a strong dependence upon the initial conditions or the wake generators. The large-scale vorticity and the sizes of vortex in the circular and square cylinders are larger than those in the CS cylinder wake. The contributions to the Reynolds shear stresses from the large-scale turbulent structures account for 90–96% to the measured maximum Reynolds shear stresses for the three wakes. However, the small-scale structures make less contribution to the vorticity and Reynolds shear stresses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]