Experimental investigation on droplet evolutions in co-flow around the bluff body

Annular mist flow widely exists in natural gas and other engineering fields. Vortex flowmeter has gradually become an effective means of wet gas measurement. However, the droplets in the flow field will influence the stability of the vortex. In this paper, the interaction between droplets and vortex was studied by experiments. A novel in-focus criterion was proposed to improve the accuracy of droplet measurement. Simultaneous acquisition of droplet size, velocity, and concentration was achieved. The spatial evolution of droplet parameters was obtained to determine the position where the droplets were evenly distributed. The bidirectional coupling mechanism between droplets and vortex was studied. Firstly, the influence of the vortex flow field on droplets was reflected by the characteristics of droplet distribution around the bluff body. Secondly, the effect of droplets on the vortex signal in the flow field was analyzed based on Stokes number Stp and liquid-phase load φl. When φl < 0.03, the probability distribution of droplet velocity downstream of the bluff body presents double peaks. The exchange momentum between the small droplets and the vortex is stronger, and vice versa for the larger droplets. Finally, the quality factor of vortex signals decreases from −2.09 to −2.18 with the increase in the volume concentration of droplets. It is further demonstrated that the increase in volume concentration of droplets will destroy the vortex structure and degrade the quality of the vortex signal.