Introductory Remarks

In Chapter 4 the basic gas–liquid two-phase flow regimes along with flow regime maps were reviewed. The discussion of flow regimes was limited to empirical methods applicable to commonly applied pipes and rod bundles. In this chapter mechanistic two-phase flow regime models will be discussed.

Empirical flow regime models suffer from the lack of sound theoretical or phenomenological bases. Mechanistic methods, in contrast, rely on physically based models for each major regime transition process. These models are often simple and rather idealized. However, since they take into account the crucial phenomenological characteristics of each transition process, they can be applied to new parameter ranges with better confidence than purely empirical methods. Some important investigations where regime transition models for the entire flow regime map were considered include the works of Taitel and Dukler (1976), Taitel, Bornea, and Dukler (1980), Weisman and co-workers (1979, 1981), Mishima and Ishii (1984), and Barnea and co-workers (1986, 1987). The derivation of simple mechanistic regime transition models often involves insightful approximations and phenomenological interpretations. The review of the major elements of the successful models can thus be a useful learning experience.

In this chapter only conventional flow passages (i.e., flow passages with) will be considered. There are important differences between commonly applied channels and mini- or microchannels with respect to the gas–liquid two-phase flow hydrodynamics. Two-phase flow regimes and conditions leading to regime transitions in mini- and microchannels will be discussed in Chapter 10.