Analytical study of two-phase flow pressure-drop oscillations in a vertical heated tube

This paper focuses on an analytical investigation of two-phase flow pressure-drop oscillations in a vertical heated tube with the two-fluid model employed in the computer code MINI-TRAC. Pressure-drop oscillation is an important phenomenon appearing in a two-phase flow channel with compressible volume existing in the upstream region. In a previous investigation, pressure-drop oscillations with superimposed density-wave oscillations were observed. In this work, numerical calculations have been carried out to predict the characteristics of pressure-drop oscillations and the range of instabilities. We also offer an application of the two-fluid model to the analysis of pressure-drop oscillations at low pressure in a heated channel with a small inner diameter. Good agreement between the simulations and experiments was obtained. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Jpn Res, 27(8): 597–608, 1998