Reduction of skin friction and two-phase flow structure beneath wall in horizontal rectangular channel

Abstract

From the viewpoint of the improvement of the air lubrication method for the ship's hull resistance reduction, an experimental study was conducted for two-phase flow in a horizontal rectangular channel with a length of 3.0 m, a gap of 0.05 m, and a width of 0.2 m, which simulates the external two-phase flow. The database on frictional drag and local two-phase flow parameters, including void fraction profile and gas chord length, was collected using a shear stress sensor and a double sensor probe. Measurement of two-phase flow structure was performed at three axial positions of z = 0.930, 1.43, and 1.93 m from the bubble injection port. The wall shear stress was obtained at z = 1.93 m. A total of 72 datasets are acquired a room temperature and at flow conditions of superficial liquid velocity <j_f> ranging from 0.832 to 3.00 m/s and superficial gas velocity <j_g> ranging from 0.0232 to 0.714 m/s. The effects of entry length, liquid and gas flow rates on the phase distribution characteristics beneath the wall were discussed. The bubble layer thickness was newly defined as the length scale. The bubble layer thickness was not so sensitive to the changes in the liquid flow rates and the entry length, and highly dependent on the gas flow rates in the present experimental conditions. The mean void fraction in the bubble layer was highly reliant on the liquid flow rate and decreased with the superficial liquid velocity. In contrast, the insignificant effect of gas flow rate on the mean void fraction was confirmed. A strong correlation between the drag reduction effect due to the air lubrication and the mean void fraction in the bubble layer was confirmed. The obtained data are expected to be used for the modeling of the interfacial area transport terms, development of the constitutive equations of the drift flux model, modeling of the drag reduction for the external two-phase flow and the benchmark tests of various CFD codes in the future study.