Introduction

Scope

In the context of this book, the term multiphase flow is used to refer to any fluid flow consisting of more than one phase or component. For brevity and because they are covered in other texts, we exclude those circumstances in which the components are well mixed above the molecular level. Consequently, the flows considered here have some level of phase or component separation at a scale well above the molecular level. This still leaves an enormous spectrum of different multiphase flows. One could classify them according to the state of the different phases or components and therefore refer to gas/solids flows or liquid/solids flows or gas/particle flows or bubbly flows and so on; many texts exist that limit their attention in this way. Some treatises are defined in terms of a specific type of fluid flow and deal with low-Reynolds-number suspension flows, dusty gas dynamics, and so on. Others focus attention on a specific application such as slurry flows, cavitating flows, aerosols, debris flows, fluidized beds, and so on; again, there are many such texts. In this book we attempt to identify the basic fluid mechanical phenomena and to illustrate those phenomena with examples from a broad range of applications and types of flow.

Parenthetically, it is valuable to reflect on the diverse and ubiquitous challenges of multiphase flow. Virtually every processing technology must deal with multiphase flow, from cavitating pumps and turbines to electrophotographic processes to papermaking to the pellet form of almost all raw plastics.