Study of two-phase flow regime identification in horizontal tube bundles under vertical upward cross-flow condition using wavelet transform

Abstract

A wavelet-transform based approach for flow regime identification in horizontal tube bundles under vertical upward cross-flow condition was presented. Tests on two-phase flow pattern of R134a were conducted under low mass velocity and flow boiling conditions over ranges of mass flux 4–25 kg/m²s, vapor quality 0.02–0.90. Time series of differential pressure fluctuations were measured and analyzed with discrete wavelet transform. Different time-scale characteristics in bubbly flow, churn flow and annular flow were analyzed. The wavelet energy distributions over scales were found to be appropriate for flow regime identification. Based on the wavelet energy distribution over characteristic scales, a criterion of flow regime identification was proposed. The comparison with experiment results show that it is feasible to use the discrete wavelet transform as the tool of flow regime identification in horizontal tube bundles under vertical upward cross-flow condition.

Keywords

tube bundles / two-phase flow / wavelet transform / flow regime identification