Prediction of gas-liquid two-phase flow regime in microgravity

Abstract

An attempt is made to predict gas-liquid two-phase flow regime in a pipe in a microgravity environment through scaling analysis based on dominant physical mechanisms. Simple inlet geometry is adopted in the analysis to see the effect of inlet configuration on flow regime transitions. Comparison of the prediction with the existing experimental data shows good agreement, though more work is required to better define some physical parameters. The analysis clarifies much of the physics involved in this problem and can be applied to other configurations