Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer of Magnetohydrodynamic Annular Two-Phase Flow in Rectangular Channel

Abstract

An annular two-phase flow model has been proposed to predict the pressure drop and heat transfer of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) gas-liquid metal two-phase flow in a rectangular channel for the case of high void fraction. The model for a rectangular channel, in which the applied magnetic field is perpendicular to the short side of the channel cross-section, nearly predicts Inoue et al.’s experimental data on the MHD pressure drop. For fusion reactor conditions, the model shows calculated results that the MHD pressure drop for two-phase flow can be lowered to 10 percent of that of the single-phase liquid flow and the heat transfer coefficient can be increased by a factor of two or more over that of the single-phase liquid flow.