Velocity bias in intrusive gas-liquid flow measurements

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 4123
• Main Authors: Hohermuth, B., Kramer, M., Felder, S., Valero, D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05-07-2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166/986; 639/166/988; 639/766/189; 704/106/829/2737; Algorithms; Bias; Breaking waves; Computational fluid dynamics; Flow control; Humanities and Social Sciences; Liquid flow; multidisciplinary; Nuclear engineering; Nuclear reactors; Probes; Rapids; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Surface tension; Two phase flow; Velocity; Water treatment
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24231-4

Gas–liquid flows occur in many natural environments such as breaking waves, river rapids and human-made systems, including nuclear reactors and water treatment or conveyance infrastructure. Such two-phase flows are commonly investigated using phase-detection intrusive probes, yielding velocities that are considered to be directly representative of bubble velocities. Using different state-of-the-art instruments and analysis algorithms, we show that bubble–probe interactions lead to an underestimation of the real bubble velocity due to surface tension. To overcome this velocity bias, a correction method is formulated based on a force balance on the bubble. The proposed methodology allows to assess the bubble–probe interaction bias for various types of gas-liquid flows and to recover the undisturbed real bubble velocity. We show that the velocity bias is strong in laboratory scale investigations and therefore may affect the extrapolation of results to full scale. The correction method increases the accuracy of bubble velocity estimations, thereby enabling a deeper understanding of fundamental gas-liquid flow processes.
Estimating velocities in gas liquid flows is of importance in many engineering applications. Hohermuth et al. show that previous bubble velocities obtained from intrusive probes have been underestimated and provide a correction scheme for more accurate velocity measurements.