Interfacial Area Transport Equation and Implementation Into Two-Fluid Model

Abstract

A dynamic treatment of interfacial area concentration has been studied over the last decade by employing the interfacial area transport equation. When coupled with the two-fluid model, the interfacial area transport equation replaces the flow regime dependent correlations for interfacial area concentration and eliminates potential artificial bifurcation or numerical oscillations stemming from these static correlations. An extensive database has been established to evaluate the model under various two-phase flow conditions. These include adiabatic and heated conditions, vertical and horizontal flow orientations, round, rectangular, annulus, and 8×8 rod-bundle channel geometries, and normal-gravity and reduced-gravity conditions. Currently, a two-group interfacial area transport equation is available and applicable to comprehensive two-phase flow conditions spanning from bubbly to churn-turbulent flow regimes. A framework to couple the two-group interfacial area transport equation with the modified two-fluid model is established in view of multiphase computational fluid dynamics code applications as well as reactor system analysis code applications. The present study reviews the current state-of-the-art in the development of the interfacial area transport equation, available experimental databases, and the analytical methods to incorporate the interfacial area transport equation into the two-fluid model.