Refilling and Rewetting of a Hot Horizontal Tube: Part II—Structure of a Two-Fluid Model

Abstract

This is the second paper in a series of three papers reporting on a study on refilling and rewetting of horizontal tubes. The experimental work has been reported in a previous paper (Chan and Banerjee [1]). This paper concentrates on development of a mathematical model for analysis of the main thermal-hydraulic processes. The resulting set of equations are solved numerically. An explicit finite difference characteristics technique is used to solve the hydraulic equations. To assess the model and the accuracy of the numerical technique used, a relatively simple problem, refilling of a dry horizontal tube with no heat transfer, is investigated. Experimental and calculated results are compared. This problem highlights the hydraulic aspects of the more complicated refilling and rewetting problem which is analyzed in a subsequent paper (Chan and Banerjee [2]).