A Characteristic Analysis of One-Dimensional Two-Fluid Model with Interfacial Area Transport Equation

Abstract

An interfacial area transport equation (IATE), proposed to dynamically describe the interfacial structure evolution of two-phase flows, could help improve the predictive capability of the two-fluid model. The present study aims to investigate the well-posedness issue of a one-dimensional two-fluid model with the IATE (named “two-fluid-IATE model” hereafter) using a characteristic analysis. The momentum flux parameters, which take into account the coupling of the volumetric fraction of phase and velocity distributions over the cross-section of a flow passage, are employed. A necessary condition for the system to achieve hyperbolicity under an adiabatic flow condition is identified. A case study is performed for an adiabatic liquid-liquid slug flow, which shows that the hyperbolicity of the two-fluid-IATE model is guaranteed if appropriate correlations of the momentum flux parameters are applied in the two-fluid-IATE model.