Abstract
Two-phase flow nozzles are used in the total flow system for geothermal power plants and in the ejector of the refrigerant cycle, etc. One of the most important functions of a two-phase flow nozzle is to convert the thermal energy to the kinetic energy of the two-phase flow. The kinetic energy of the two-phase flow exhausted from a nozzle is available for all applications of this type. There exist the shock waves or rarefaction waves at the outlet of a supersonic nozzle in the case of non-best fitting expansion conditions when the operation conditions of the nozzle are widely chosen. The purpose of the present study is to elucidate theoretically the character of the rarefaction waves at the outlet of the supersonic two-phase flow nozzle. Two-dimensional basic equations for the compressible two-phase flow are introduced considering the inter-phase momentum transfer. Sound velocities are obtained from these equations by using monochromatic wave approximation. Those depend on the relaxation time that determines the momentum transfer. The two-phase flow with large relaxation times has a frozen sound velocity, and with small one has an equilibrium sound velocity. Rarefaction waves which occurred behind the two-phase flow nozzle are calculated by the CIP method. Although the frozen Mach number, below one, controls these basic equations, the rarefaction waves appeared for small relaxation time. The Mach line behind which the expansion starts depends on the inlet velocity and the relaxation time. Those relationships are shown in this paper. The pressure expansion curves are only a function of the revolution angle around the corner of the nozzle outlet for the relaxation time less than 0.1. For the larger relaxation time, the pressure decays because of internal friction caused by inter phase momentum transfer, and the expansion curves are a function of not only the angle but also the flow direction. The calculated expansion curves are compared with the experimental ones. The calculations considered only the compressibility of the gas phase, but those resembled with the curve of the experiment in which the phase changes occurred.
