Effect of virtual mass force on prediction of pressure changes in condensing tubes

Abstract

Three-fluid model is used to calculate the pressure drops in a vertical pipe with the annular flow pattern for condensing steam. The three-fluid models are based on the mass, momentum, and energy balance equations for each of the fluid streams in the annular flow. There are discrepancies between predictions of three-fluid model for pressure drops and the experimental data for pressure drops when using the avail?able correlations for steam-film interfacial friction. The correlation by Stevanovic et at provides good match with experimental data, but it does not take into account some important factors affecting the pressure drops in its three-fluid model. One of these significant factors which is considered in the three fluid model used in the present paper is virtual mass (added mass) force term. Inclusion of the virtual mass force improves the pressure drop predictions such that they agree much better with the experiments.