An indirect criterion for the laminar to turbulent flow transition in shear-driven annular liquid films

Andrea Cioncolini*, Davide Del Col, John R. Thome

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

An indirect method to identify the laminar to turbulent flow transition in shear-driven annular liquid films has been developed and used, together with literature measurements of the velocity profile, to approximately resolve the near wall structure in shear-driven annular liquid films. The limits between the laminar sublayer and the buffer layer and between the buffer layer and the turbulent layer have been found to correspond to about 9 and 40 wall units, respectively, which are higher than the corresponding limits of 5 and 30 wall units typical of single-phase boundary layers, thus indicating a weaker turbulence intensity in shear-driven annular liquid films with respect to single-phase wall-bounded flows. Additionally, a simple laminar to turbulent flow transition criterion and a prediction method for the average liquid film thickness have been developed for evaporation and condensation applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)26-38
Number of pages13
JournalInternational Journal of Multiphase Flow
Volume75
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Annular two-phase flow
  • Laminar to turbulent flow transition
  • Laminarization
  • Shear-driven liquid film
  • Thin liquid film
  • Turbulence emergence

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