Cioncolini, AndreaDel Col, DavideThome, John R.2015-09-282015-09-282015-09-28201510.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2015.05.002https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/118677WOS:000359957800003An indirect method to identify the laminar to turbulent flow transition in shear-driven annular liquid films has been developed and used, together with literature measurements of the velocity profile, to approximately resolve the near wall structure in shear-driven annular liquid films. The limits between the laminar sublayer and the buffer layer and between the buffer layer and the turbulent layer have been found to correspond to about 9 and 40 wall units, respectively, which are higher than the corresponding limits of 5 and 30 wall units typical of single-phase boundary layers, thus indicating a weaker turbulence intensity in shear-driven annular liquid films with respect to single-phase wall-bounded flows. Additionally, a simple laminar to turbulent flow transition criterion and a prediction method for the average liquid film thickness have been developed for evaporation and condensation applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Laminar to turbulent flow transitionAnnular two-phase flowShear-driven liquid filmThin liquid filmTurbulence emergenceLaminarizationtext::journal::journal article::research article