Pressure Distribution over Tube Surfaces of Tube Bundle Subjected to Two-Phase Cross-Flow

Two-phase vapor-liquid flows exist in many shell and tube heat exchangers such as condensers, evaporators, and nuclear steam generators. To understand the fluid dynamic forces acting on a structure subjected to a two-phase flow, it is essential to obtain detailed information about the characteristics of a two-phase flow. The characteristics of a two-phase flow and the flow parameters were introduced, and then, an experiment was performed to evaluate the pressure loss in the tube bundles and the fluid-dynamic force acting on the cylinder owing to the pressure distribution. A two-phase flow was pre-mixed at the entrance of the test section, and the experiments were undertaken using a normal triangular array of cylinders subjected to a two-phase cross-flow. The pressure loss along the flow direction in the tube bundles was measured to calculate the two-phase friction multiplier, and the multiplier was compared with the analytical value. Furthermore, the circular distributions of the pressure on the cylinders were measured. Based on the distribution and the fundamental theory of two-phase flow, the effects of the void fraction and mass flux per unit area on the pressure coefficient and the drag coefficient were evaluated. The drag coefficient was calculated by integrating the measured pressure on the tube by a numerical method. It was found that for low mass fluxes, the measured two-phase friction multipliers agree well with the analytical results, and good agreement for the effect of the void fraction on the drag coefficients, as calculated by the measured pressure distributions, is shown qualitatively, as compared to the existing experimental results.