Physics of Gas-Liquid Flows

Presenting tools for understanding the behaviour of gas-liquid flows based on the ways large scale behaviour relates to small scale interactions, this text is ideal for engineers seeking to enhance the safety and efficiency of natural gas pipelines, water-cooled nuclear reactors, absorbers, distillation columns and gas lift pumps. The review of advanced concepts in fluid mechanics enables both graduate students and practising engineers to tackle the scientific literature and engage in advanced research. It focuses on gas-liquid flow in pipes as a simple system with meaningful experimental data. This unified theory develops design equations for predicting drop size, frictional pressure losses and slug frequency, which can be used to determine flow regimes, the effects of pipe diameter, liquid viscosity and gas density. It describes the effect of wavy boundaries and temporal oscillations on turbulent flows, and explains transition between phases, which is key to understanding the behaviour of gas-liquid flows.

1. One-dimensional analysis; 2. Flow regimes; 3. Film flows; 4. Inviscid waves; 5. Stratified flows; 6. Viscous waves; 7. Long wavelength waves; 8. Bubble dynamics; 9. Slug flows; 10. Particle turbulence; 11. Vertical annular flow; 12. Horizontal annular flow.

Thomas J. Hanratty is Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and was a leader in establishing industrially important multiphase flow as a new academic discipline, by relating macroscopic behaviour to small scale interactions. His research has been recognised by nine awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Society for Engineering Education, Ohio State University, Villanova University and the University of Illinois. He was the inaugural winner of the International Multiphase Flow Prize. Hanratty was named as one of the influential chemical engineers of the modern era at the AIChE centennial Celebration in 2008. He has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.