Deep swirling flow down a plughole with air entrainment

Experiments have been carried out to determine the water depth required to entrain a given amount of air with a given circulating water flow discharging through a vertical pipe set in the flat bottom of a vessel. The circulation angle, , between the radial direction and the velocity vector far from discharge pipe was set at 0°, 10°, 30° or 60°.

It is shown that results are not dependent upon the diameter of the offtake pipe, if that is sufficiently small, and results are then expressed either as a dimensionless water depth vs a dimensionless ratio of the flow rates of the two phases or as a dimensionless flow rate of one phase vs the dimensionless flow rate of the other phase. An approximate theory describes trends in the data and is mostly in good quantitative agreement.

The results are used to examine the work of others on the entrainment of air or steam by water flowing along the bottom of a horizontal pipe into a small bottom offtake and the similar entrainment of water by air or steam flowing into a small top offtake. These systems occur in certain PWR loss of coolant accidents.