MEASUREMENT OF THE SINGLE AND TWO PHASE FLOW USING A NEWLY DEVELOPED AVERAGE BIDIRECTIONAL FLOW TUBE

A new instrument, an average BDFT (Birectional Flow Tube), was proposed to measure the flow rate in single and two phase flows. Its working principle is similar to that of the Pilot tube, wherein the dynamic pressure is measured. In an average BDFT, the pressure measured at the front of the flow tube is equal to the total pressure, while that measured at the rear tube is slightly less than the static pressure of the flow field due to the suction effect downstream. The proposed instrument was tested in air/water vertical and horizontal test sections with an inner diameter of 0.08m. The tests were performed primarily in single phase water and air flow conditions to obtain the amplification factor(k) of the flow tube in the vertical and horizontal test sections. Tests were also performed in air/water vertical two phase flow conditions in which the flow regimes were bubbly, slug, and churn turbulent flows. In order to calculate the phasic mass flow rates from the measured differential pressure, the Chexal drift-flux correlation and a momentum exchange factor between the two phases were introduced. The test results show that the proposed instrument with a combination of the measured void fraction, Chexal drift-flux correlation, and Bosio & Malnes' momentum exchange model could predict the phasic mass flow rates within a error. A new momentum exchange model was also proposed from the present data and its implementation provides a improvement to the measured mass flow rate when compared to that with the Bosio & Malnes' model.