Characteristics and behavior of the interfacial wave on the liquid film in a vertically upward air-water two-phase annular flow

The behavior of individual interfacial waves on liquid film in vertically upward air-water annular flows has been visualized, observed and analyzed by a pigment luminance method(PLM) which was calibrated with a fiber-optic liquid film sensor. By means of this technique, we distinguished three different types of interfacial waves, i.e. the ripple wave, the ring wave and the disturbance wave. Furthermore we measured the characteristics of these three different kinds of waves, and in particular those of the disturbance wave: i.e. its propagation velocity, its frequency in passing and the distance between two adjacent waves, and then obtained the dependency of these characteristics on the air and water volumetric fluxes j_g and j_l. These results agreed well with the results obtained by other investigators, using an electric needle contact method. A probable mechanism of the occurrence of the ring and the disturbance waves was posited.