An Investigation into Flow Regimes for Two-Phase Helium Flow

Abstract

The Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab incorporates long two-phase helium passages. During magnet design, the generalized flow map of Baker was used to predict homogeneous flow. Longer than expected magnet time constants led to this investigation. The importance of predicting the flow regime has been amplified with the advent of non-horizontal accelerator designs.

A test setup was constructed at Fermilab to investigate two-phase helium flow regimes for conditions practical in accelerator designs. The setup consisted of a standard Tevatron satellite refrigerator, subcooling dewar, heater, 35 m long transfer line, and a specialized end box. A knife blade on the midplane of the end of the transfer line diverted the flow from the upper and lower halves of the pipe to separate vessels in the end box. The amount of liquid above and below the plane was measured at various total mass flow rates and liquid percentages.

The resules show that stratified flow occurs at much higher liquid percentages than predicted by the Baker digram (several orders of magnitude). We were not able to produce high enough steady state flows to find a boundary to a homogenous flow regime. Stratified flow occurred over all practical conditions for long accelerator magnet systems.

Operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Operated by Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc. under contact with the U.S. Department of Energy.