Characterization of non equilibrium effects on high quality critical flows

The appropriate design of various pieces of safety equipment such as relief systems, relies on the accurate description of critical flow phenomena. Most of the systems of industrial interest are willing to be described by one-dimensional area-averaged models and a large fraction of them involves multi-component high gas quality flows. Within these circumstances, the flow is very likely to be of an annular dispersed nature and its description by two-fluid models requires various closure relations. Among the most sensitive closures, there is the interfacial area and the liquid entrained fraction. The critical flowrate depends tremendously on the accurate description of the non equilibrium which results from the correctness of the closure equations. In this study, two-component flows are emphasized and non equilibrium results mainly form the differences in the phase velocities. It is therefore of the utmost importance to have reliable data to characterize non equilibrium phenomena and to assess the validity of the closure models. A comprehensive description of air-water nozzle flows, with emphasis on the effect of the nozzle geometry, has been undertaken and some of the results are presented here which helps understanding the overall flow dynamics. Besides the critical flowrate, the presented material includes pressure profiles, droplet size and velocity, liquid film flowrate and liquid film thickness