Pressure Drops in Two-Phase Gas–Liquid Flow through Channels Filled with Open-Cell Metal Foams

Roman Dyga and Sebastian Brol
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Roman Dyga: Department of Process and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Opole University of Technology, Mikołajczyka 5, 45-271 Opole, Poland
Sebastian Brol: Department of Vehicles, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Opole University of Technology, Mikołajczyka 5, 45-271 Opole, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-26

Abstract: This paper describes experimental investigations of single-phase and two-phase gas–liquid flow through channels with a diameter of 20 mm and length of 2690 mm, filled with metal foams. Three types of aluminium foams with pore densities of 20, 30 and 40 PPI and porosities ranging from 29.9% to 94.3% were used. Air, water and oil were pumped through the foams. The tests covered laminar, transitional and turbulent flow. We demonstrated that the Reynolds number, in which the hydraulic dimension should be defined based on foam porosity and pore diameter d e = ϕd p /(1 − ϕ ), can be used as a flow regime assessment criterion. It has been found that fluid pressure drops when flowing through metal foams significantly depends on the cell size and porosity of the foam, as well as the shape of the foam skeleton. The flow patterns had a significant influence on the pressure drop. Among other things, we observed a smaller pressure drop when plug flow changed to stratified flow. We developed a model to describe pressure drop in flow through metal foams. As per the proposed methodology, pressure drop in single-phase flow should be determined based on the friction factor, taking into account the geometrical parameters of the foams. We propose to calculate pressure drop in gas–liquid flow as the sum of pressure drops in gas and liquid pressure drop corrected by the drop amplification factor.

Keywords: gas–liquid flow; single flow; pressure drop; open-cell metal foam; modelling the pressure drop; flow patterns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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