Interfacial area transport and evaluation of source and sink terms for confined air–water bubbly flow

The interfacial area transport equation applicable to the bubbly flow is presented. The model is evaluated against data acquired by a state-of-the-art miniaturized double-sensor conductivity probe in an adiabatic air–water co-current vertical test loop under atmospheric pressure condition. In general, a good agreement, within the measurement error of ±10%, is observed for a wide range in the bubbly flow regime. The evaluation of the individual particle interaction mechanisms demonstrates the active interactions between the bubbles and highlights the mechanisms playing the dominant role in interfacial area transport. The analysis employing the drift flux model is also performed for the data acquired. Under the given flow conditions, the distribution parameter of 1.076 yields the best fit to the data.