Interfacial Friction Factors for Air-Water Co-current Stratified Flow in Inclined Channels

The interfacial shear stress is experimentally investigated for co-current air-water stratified flow in inclined rectangular channels having a length of 1854mm, width of 120mm and height of 40mm at almost atmospheric pressure. Experiments are carried out in several inclinations from $0^{\circ}\;up\;to\;10^{\circ}$. The local film thickness and the wave height are measured at three locations, i.e., L/H = 8,23, and 40. According to the inclination angle, the experimental data are categorized into two groups; nearly horizontal data group ($0^{\circ}\;{\leq}\;{\theta}\;{\leq}\;0.7^{\circ}$), and inclined channel data group ($0.7^{\circ}\;{\leq}\;{\theta}\;{\leq}\;10^{\circ}$). Experimental observations for nearly horizontal data group show that the flow is not fully developed due to the water level gradient and the hydraulic jump within the channel. For the inclined channel data group, a dimensionless wave height, $\Delta$h/h, is empirically correlated in terms of $Re_{G}$ and h/H. A modified root-mean-square wave height is proposed to consider the effects of the interfacial and wave propagation velocities. It is found that an equivalent roughness has a linear relationship with the modified root-mean-square wave height and its relationship is independent of the inclination.