Water Entrainment Chanel Karlsruhe

Contact: stephan.gabriel∂kit.edu

The WENKA experiment serves the investigation of counter-current stratified two-phase flows. From 2001 to today, several experiments were carried out on horizontal and bent channels. The construction concept of the duct is modular, the geometry can be changed easily. Figure 1 shows the CAD-model of the current configuration. Channel size and experimental parameters can be found in table 1.

The objective was and still is the provision of validation data for new 2D and 3D CFD codes. For validation of turbulence- and phase-interaction models local high-resolution data is required. Therefore, velocity- and phase-distributions can be measured in several flow regimes. Movie 2 gives an impression of the complex flow phenomena in counter-current stratified two-phase flows.

A number of measurement systems are available:

• Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)
• Isokinetic Sampling Probe
• Optical Void Measurement (OVM)
• Electric Conductivity Probe
• Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA)
• High-Speed Videometry

Using these systems the following physical properties can be measured:

• local time averaged velocity (2D PIV)
• local velocity fluctuation (2D PIV)
• local tubulent kinetic energy (2D PIV)
• local shear stress (2D PIV)
• local time averaged void distribution (2D OVM)

Since the beginning of the test operation, several graduate students and student workers studied stratified flow phenomena at the WENKA facility. Numerous articles and theses were published by different authors. Subsequently, a selection several publications of can be found. 

• Gargallo, M.; Schulenberg, T.; Meyer, L.; Laurien, E.: Counter-current flow limitations during hot leg injection in pressuriezed water reactors, Nuclear Engeneering and Design, 235, 785-804, 2005
• Gargallo Gallego, M.: Countercurrent Flow Limitations in Horizontal Stratified Flows of Air and Water, Scientific Reports FZKA 7018, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe (2004)
• Stäbler T.D.: Experimentelle Untersuchung und physikalische Beschreibung der Schichtenströmung in horizontalen Kanälen, Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Kernenergetik und Energiesysteme (IKE), Stuttgart (2007), FZKA 7296
• Stäbler T.D., Meyer L., Schulenberg T., Laurien E.: Turbulence and Void Distribution in Horizontal Counter-current Stratified Flow, Proc. Seventeenth International Symposium on Transport Phenomena, Japan (2006)
• S. Gabriel, T. Schulenberg, and E. Laurien: Velocity and Void Distribution in a Counter-Current Two-Phase Flow, Proc. Int. Conf. Advances on Nu-clear Power Plants, ICAPP’12, Chicago, USA, June 24-28, 2012

For more information or experimental data, please contact one of the contact persons named above.