Flow of a film of water in a vertical tube of large diameter traversed by an ascending airflow

Numerous studies have been carried out on the flow of a liquid film descending in a vertical tube traversed by an ascending gas flow. However, these studies were made mainly for small diameter tubes, with a water injection at the wall, that is to say without spraying. As part of researches on underground gasification, work has been undertaken to cool the gasification gas, with the aim to cool the gas by spraying water. In underground gasification, large diameter pipes are used. It was therefore interesting to study the behavior of the liquid film in a large diameter tube where the liquid is sprayed down at the center of the tube. This study is a first approach to the problem of cooling an underground gasification gas, which benefits from the experiments carried out on the REGINE loop (gas cooling by water injection). In the first part, the different studies made on this subject are reviewed. Then, the installation and the experiments carried out are described. Finally, experimental values are compared with calculations made using the different proposed correlations.