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Introduction thickness have been conducted for various air velocities, oil flow
rates, test section slopes, and film flow lengths. Thus, the major
A proper characterization of the air/oil flow in bearing compart-
parameters to describe the heat transfer and the propagation of the
ments and many other cavities of the so-called secondary air sys- liquid wall film are available for the air/oil flow under
tem of modern aeroengines requires reliable models for droplet investigation.
entrainment from shear-driven oil films. In particular the develop-
ment of CFD-based design tools computational fluid dynamics
to simulate this complex type of flow requires detailed informa- Experimental Setup and Operating Conditions
tion as shown by Glahn et al. 1. The pressure drop of the two- The measurements presented in this paper have been performed
phase flow as well as the heat transfer from the wall to the gas using an unheated rectangular duct (30 mm50 mm) with only
core is strongly affected by the distribution of oil as wall film and the bottom wall wetted and a length of up to l30H900 mm.
as droplets within the gas core 2,3. Thus, the thickness of the The air pressure is p3 bar absolute and the oil has a kinematic
liquid film becomes a vitally important parameter for a proper viscosity of f 5.2 mm2 /s DOW: DC 200 Fluid 5 cs. Thereby,
description of the overall flow field. the film flows only on a width of b40 mm to minimize effects
A profound modeling of the droplet generation mechanism at due to a three-dimensional air flow in the duct. It flows in a height
the gas-liquid interface, caused by the co-current air stream is adjustable groove such that it can be lowered a little bit more than
very demanding. For that reason, this type of flow is still under its film thickness with respect to the bottom wall of the duct. By
research. Extensive investigations have been performed in the past this method, the film remains in the restricted area and further-
for fully developed two-phase flow with respect to their signifi- more no point of discontinuity of the gas phase occurs at the start
cance, e.g., for air/water flow in pipe systems of nuclear power of the film.
plants or evaporators 4 8. In more recent work the effect of A schematic diagram of the test section is given in Fig. 1. The
inclination has been studied in detail 911. The present work air is supplied by a compressor at a constant pressure. A settling
focuses on developing film flow, because the typical pipe lengths chamber with a nozzle is placed upstream of the rectangular duct
within the secondary air system of aeroengines and many other to generate a constant velocity profile at the entrance. The oil film
applications are by far too short to expect fully developed flow is formed by a device consisting of a small slit, through which the
conditions. Thus, the film flow length has to be taken into account. liquid flows into the test section at a shallow angle with respect to
Measurements of the entrainment fraction and the oil film the main stream direction. Therewith, a point of discontinuity is
avoided at the start of the film. For the same reason, the film flows
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute IGTI of THE AMERICAN on a plate, which can be adjusted in its height. Thus, the cross
SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS for publication in the ASME JOURNAL OF section of the gas flow remains constant changing the film load-
ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER. Paper presented at the Interna-
tional Gas Turbine and Aeroengine Congress and Exhibition, New Orleans, LA, June
ing. Three different film flow lengths can be installed (l10
4 7, 2001; Paper 01-GT-115. Manuscript received by IGTI, December 2000, final 30H). The film draining is realized via a variable slit to adjust
revision, March 2001. Associate Editor: R. Natole. it according to the present flow conditions. This procedure ensures
874 Vol. 124, OCTOBER 2002 Copyright 2002 by ASME Transactions of the ASME
the complete removal of the wall film with minimal air content for Measurement Techniques
all test conditions. The performance of the device can be observed
In the following a brief description of the measurement systems
through a window.
Extensive measurements have been performed over a wide used to analyze the complex two-phase flow will be given. First of
range of air and oil flow rates. Table 1 gives a detailed overview all, the mass flow rate measurement of the droplets in the gas core
of the operating conditions and the fluid properties. and the liquid wall film to determine the entrainment fraction with
a high level of accuracy is described. The liquid flows in a closed
circuit. It is supplied to the test rig by a pump out of a reservoir
and is continuously drained by an adjustable slot. The functional-
Table 1 Operating conditions of entrainment fraction and film ity of the device can be observed optically. Thus, the slot can be
thickness measurements adjusted according to the working conditions such that an addi-
tional drainage of droplets from the gas core can be avoided.
Between the outlet of the filter system downstream and the inlet of
the oil tank the liquid can be redirected by computer-controlled
valves onto a high-accuracy scale resolution: m0.1 g for a
well defined period of time. By this procedure the oil flow rate of
both, the droplets and the wall film can be determined with an
accuracy of m0.05 g/s.
The measurement of film thickness is very demanding. In the
past, several capacitive and inductive techniques have been ap-
plied e.g., Hewitt 12. A major restriction in the use of these
sensors are their large dimensions. In order to obtain a better
spatial resolution optical approaches have been suggested. An ad-
vanced system based on the absorption of infrared light is de-
scribed by Samenfink et al. 13. This technique is suitable for
water and alcohols due to the strong absorption within the fluid.
Unfortunately, nearly no absorption occurs for the oil under inves-
Fig. 2 Optical setup and the modified data acquisition of the nonintrusive
laser-based film thickness measurement technique
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power OCTOBER 2002, Vol. 124 875
h f h
tan /2
tan f /2
hc n,n f with f /2arcsinn
nf
sin /2 .
The prediction of the entrainment fraction EF according to Eq.
2 is done assuming that all liquid above the stability limit of the
film is disintegrated. Two different entrainment mechanisms are
(1) introduced. The so-called wave undercut and shear off roll waves
Thus, the film structure can be detected as long as the surface depending on the flow conditions. This contemplation leads to a
angle of the film remains lower than f /28.0 deg. Previous in- equilibrium entrainment fraction EF cp. Eq. 3 of droplets in
vestigations on film flows at the Institute of Thermal Turboma- the gas core and liquid at the wall for a fully developed flow. It
chinery Samenfink et al. 13,15 revealed that the surface angles should be mentioned that the definition of both, the film Reynolds
of shear-driven liquid films are mostly smaller. Therefore, the number Re*f as well as the Weber number We* , differ from the
LFD technique can be applied in order to perform spatial resolved definitions used in this paper as shown in Eqs. 45. Thus,
measurements of the film structure 16,17. In the case that the these modified parameters are superscripted by an asterisk.
maximal angle is exceeded and no measurement can be performed The following correlations have been introduced by Ishii and
the sensor gives a specific signal. This allows to discriminate Mishima 19:
those cases from valid measurements. Since such strong reflec-
tions are rare the wave structure can be reconstructed easily by V dr V dr
interpolating the missing data points. EF (2)
V f V dr V tot
EF tanh 7.25107 We* 1.25 Re*f 0.25 (3)
Theoretical Background
In this section dimensionless groups and fundamental equations f u *f D h
are provided to characterize the overall flow field. They are all Re*f (4)
f
based on the forces acting in two-phase flows. In the following, a
brief description of the forces dominating the interaction of liquid
film and co-flowing air stream is given. Inertia F I , friction F F ,
and surface tension F S can be identified as vitally important pa-
We*
g u 2g D h
g
1/3
with u *f
V f
A bH
V f
and f g .
(5)
rameters to characterize the droplet generation from shear-driven
liquid films Kataoka et al. 18. Due to the variation of the in- In order to describe the entrainment in the developing region an
clination of the flow and the large span of air velocities conducted, exponential function has been suggested. A dimensionless length
depending on film Reynolds number Re*f and a gas phase velocity separation of the parameters controlling the droplet disintegration
mechanism has been performed to derive singular relationships
u g* corrected for the droplet content are used. An overview of the for each. Thus, Figs. 6 8 give an overview of measured data sets
entrance correlation are given in Eq. 5. separating the parameters film loading Reynolds number, shear
EF 1e 10
5 2
EF stress Weber number, film length, and inclination. The angle
in Fig. 8 is defined positive for upwards directed flow according to
with
1
Re*f
and u g*
ug a force balance, which can be derived for a fluid element in the
film.
(6)
Dh u g* 4 g g 2/3
2g
The value of the constant in the relation has been derived based on
experimental data sets of Cousins et al. 20. A comparison of the
measured entrainment fraction of the present study and the half-
empirical approach is presented in the following.
Experimental Results
Entrainment Fraction. A comparison of measured and cal-
culated entrainment fraction is plotted in Fig. 3 in terms of the
dimensionless numbers described above. The diagram shows mea-
surements of entrainment fraction for horizontal flow. It displays
some shortcomings in the accuracy of the prediction for the
present application, especially taking into account the double-
logarithmic scaling. The calculated values according to the en-
trance correlation cp. Eq. 6 do not match the measured data.
On the other hand the comparison to fully developed flow condi-
tions appears reasonable. Thus, it can be assumed that the devia- Fig. 5 Entrainment function in entrance region Ishii and
tions occur due to an incorrect characterization of the entrance Mishima 19
effect.
In order to find out the origin of the discrepancies the entrance
effect is analyzed in detail. Therefore, the experimental results are
compared to data according to the exponential entrance function
cp. Eq. 6. A comparison of measured entrainment fractions and
data obtained by the correlation according to Ishii is given in Fig.
4. It can be seen clearly, that the run of the predicted curve does
not match the measured data.
Figure 5 presents a plot of the exponential function defined by
Eq. 6. The effect of the Reynolds number in the dimensionless
length is not described properly for the air/oil flow under inves-
tigation as evident in the diagram. The shape of the curve also
differs from the trend given by the measured entrainment frac-
tions. Thus, an adjustment of the model constants is not appropri-
ate in order to improve the predicting quality significantly.
Therefore, a new correlation to characterize the entrainment of
the developing air/oil flow has to be deduced. In order to obtain a
model with a high accuracy, a correlation based on the dimension- Fig. 6 Effect of Reynolds and Weber number on entrainment
less groups defined in Table 2 is presented in the following. A fraction film length l 30H ; inclination 0 deg
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power OCTOBER 2002, Vol. 124 877
loading, air flow rate, and film flow length. Figure 11 shows that
Re2f 2.25
the film thickness decreases with higher air velocities Weber
EF1.042107 We1.2 Re0.4
f 12.06110
0.8 4
. (7)
WeFr f number due to the rising shear stress at the gas/liquid interface.
The increase of shear accelerates the film and additionally in-
It has to be pointed out that the correlation has been derived from creases the droplet generation cp. Fig. 6. On the other hand no
all data sets performed within this study see Table 1. The calcu- significant effect of the film length can be observed at first sight.
lated values of the entrainment fraction according to Eq. 7 are This behavior can be explained with respect to the various inter-
also plotted in the diagrams. In order to give a measure for the locking effects. On the one hand the film loading decreases due to
overall prediction accuracy a mean relative error of EF/EF film disintegration. On the other hand the loss of momentum of
20% of the measured data and the entrainment fraction corre- the gas boundary layer leads to a decrease of the shear force. By
lation can be determined. Since no variation of the Ohnesorge this, the negligible influence of the length scale becomes evident.
number has been applied it should be mentioned that the applica-
bility of the formula is restricted to two-phase flows under com-
parable operating conditions.
The overall accuracy in predicting the entrainment fraction with
the newly developed correlation is also confirmed by the results
presented in Figs. 9 and 10. The tests have been performed over a
wide range of flow conditions which are typical for the secondary
air system of modern aero engines. Even though minor deviations
occur in some cases the correlation leads to a significant increase
of accuracy in predicting the entrainment of the air/oil flow under
investigation.
Film Thickness. Film thickness measurements have been
conducted for all operating conditions see Table 1. As mentioned
above, time-resolved film thickness measurements can be per-
formed with the LFD technique. Since modeling of liquid films is
usually done by an analysis based on mean values only time-
averaged film thickness are presented here. In order to deduce a
correlation depending on the dimensionless groups according to
Fig. 10 Comparison of measured entrainment fraction and
correlation film length l 30H ; inclination 20 deg
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by grant from the United Technology
Research Center UTRC, East Hartford U.S. which is gratefully
acknowledged. Special thanks are due to A. Glahn for the valuable
discussions on the subject and the excellent collaboration during
the investigation.
Nomenclature
Fig. 12 Comparison of measured film thickness and correla-
tion for different inclination angles AbH cross-section area m
b width of filmm
c conversion factor
D diameter m
The impact of the inclination on the film thickness is displayed f sample frequency 1/s
in Fig. 12. The effect is rather small as long as the slope of the EF entrainment fraction
duct is in the range of 20 deg 20 deg. Nevertheless, the F force N
inclination is taken into account in the correlation presented in the Fr Froude number
following. The film thickness decreases for a positive as well as h thickness, distance m
for a negative inclination angle. An explanation can be derived by H height of duct m
analyzing the gravity effect on the film propagation and the drop- l length m
let generation. In upwards directed flow the force of gravity de- LFD laser focus displacement meter
celerates the film. On the one hand, the film thickness rises up due m mass flow rate kg/s
to the conservation of mass. On the other hand, a thicker film n refraction index
exhibits a higher roughness, thereby leading to a higher interfacial On Ohnesorge number
shear stress. This results in an increase of film disintegration ac- P perimeter of duct m
cording to Fig. 8. Since both effects are of same magnitude, the p pressure Pa
dependence of the film thickness on the inclination angle becomes Re Reynolds number
clear. A similar contemplation can be conducted for downwards u velocity m/s
directed flow, respectively. u *f V f /A superficial velocity m/s
With respect to the findings presented above, the following cor- T temperature K
relation of the mean film thickness can be obtained:
V volume flow rate m3/s
h f 1.714We0.36 Re0.457
f
11.0961014
Re4f
Fr2f
0.375
mm . (8)
We
Greek Symbols
Weber number
The fraction term in the formula, taking into account the incli- aperture angle, angle of inclination deg
nation angle, confirms the considerations discussed above. The wavelength m
effect of the inclination is controlled both by the stability of the , dimensionless film length
film via the Reynolds number and by the gravity force via the kinematic viscosity mm2/s
Froude number. The predicted film thickness according to Eq. 8 surface tension N/m
are also presented in Figs. 11 and 12. The calculated curves match Indices
the measured values very well. A relative error lower than
dr droplet
h f /h f 10% of measured and predicted film thickness can be
f film
stated for all operating conditions.
F friction
g gas
Summary and Conclusions G gravity
h hydraulic
This paper supplies detailed information on the complex two- l inertia
phase flow. Extensive experimental work has been performed un- S surface tension
der operating conditions typical for the secondary air system of tot total
modern aero engines. Based on this experimental data and ad- fully developed
dressing the underlying physical relationships in terms of nondi- * modified parameter
mensional parameters, correlations for the entrained liquid and the
film thickness for air/oil flows have been developed with special References
emphasis to the starting length of the flow.
1 Glahn, A., Busam, S., Blair, M. F., Allard, K. L., and Wittig, S., 2000, Drop-
The study reveals that entrainment correlations from literature let Generation by Disintegration of Oil Films at the Rim of a Rotating Disk,
are not suitable for the present air/oil flow due to a lack in pre- 45th ASME Paper 2000-GT-279.
diction accuracy. In order to develop detailed models for CFD- 2 Glahn, A., Busam, S., and Wittig, S., 1997, Local and Mean Heat Transfer
based design tools a relationship based on dimensionless groups is Coefficients along the Internal Housing Walls of Aero Engine Bearing Cham-
bers, ASME Paper 97-GT-261.
provided. The accuracy of the correlation is excellent for all test 3 Busam, S., Glahn, A., and Wittig, S., 1999, Internal Bearing Chamber Wall
conditions performed. Due to its nondimensional form it can be Heat Transfer as a Function of Operating Conditions and Chamber Geometry,
scaled easily to similar applications. Nevertheless, the entrainment ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 122, pp. 314 320.
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power OCTOBER 2002, Vol. 124 879