Heat transfer in well-characterised Taylor flow

The flow and heat transfer behaviours of gas–liquid, non-boiling, Taylor flow in the vertical upward direction were studied experimentally using a 2.00 mm diameter channel. Nitrogen and water at atmospheric pressure were employed as the working fluids. Three circular T-junction mixers with different diameters were used to generate gas bubbles and liquid slugs of different lengths (1–220d) with controlled mixture velocities (0.11<UTP<0.53 m s−1, 200<ReTP<1100) and homogeneous void fractions (0.03<β<0.90). High-speed visualization of adiabatic flow and heat transfer rate determination for constant wall heat flux conditions were performed. The heat transfer enhancement brought about by Taylor flow is found to be larger with shorter slugs and higher mixture velocities. An enhancement up to 3.2-fold over the liquid-only flow was observed. Based on the experimental data, a correlation between the apparent slug Nusselt number (NuL⁎) with a Graetz number, where the characteristic length is that of the slug, is proposed.

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