WEB DRIVEN EXPERIMENTATION FOR TWO-PHASE FLOW

Abstract

Two-phase flow introduces a very interesting field to several areas of engineering and science. The phenomenon brings about numerous applications and benefits, especially in the study of a cooling system for highly integrated electronic circuits used in computers, the problem of narrow-gap boiling in nuclear systems 9 , and the design of highly efficient compact heat exchangers. These fields of study heavily depend on experimentations including data collection, where it is essential to design and develop two-phase flow experimental systems. This paper reports the design and development of an experimental system for two-phase flow that allows undergraduate and graduate students or other remote clients to easily run two-phase flow experiments, change control parameters and analyze the results via TCP/IP based network systems including the Internet and the Local Area Networks. This computer-aided experiment uses LabVIEW software and data acquisition boards (DAQ). Control of the experiment is initiated from a web browser, and data are acquired and sent to the remote user as they are being measured in the laboratory. With the ability to control the experimental instruments remotely, equipment can be operated and the data acquired and analyzed via TCP/IP network.