Experimental investigation conducted on Taylor bubble characteristics in a large bend including three consecutive inclinations. For this purposes, flow maps were obtained for the bend and horizontal section of upstream of the bend to define the area of this regime and mechanism of Taylor bubble formation. The effect of superficial gas-liquid velocities and the duct slope were studied on average velocity, length and frequency of bubbles. The results show, the bubble velocity and length increase as gas superficial velocity increases and the duct slope decreases. However, liquid velocity increase has decreasing effect on this characteristics. Bubble frequency is independent of slope change and reduces as gas superficial velocity increase. However, bubble frequency reduces at first and then increase as liquid superficial velocity increases. Regarding the safety regulation for industry, the minimum of the bubble frequency should be generated for the required liquid mass flow rate. Meanwhile, for the gas velocity, some optimization is required between frequency reductions with Taylor bubble velocity increase in addition to bubble length reduction. Regarding the background of the present field with shortage of results on Taylor bubbles frequency, some correlations based on the superficial Reynolds number of phases were presented for each inclination.

Keywords: two-phase flow, Taylor Bubbles, Inclined channel, Consecutive inclinations, Plug Flow

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