Gas–liquid–solid flow modelling in a bubble column

Abstract

An alternative approach to the modelling of solid-liquid and gas-liquid-solid flows for a 5:1 height to width aspect ratio bubble column is presented here. A modified transport equation for the volume fraction of a dispersed phase has been developed for the investigation of turbulent buoyancy driven flows [1]. In this study, a modified transport equation has been employed for discrete phase motion considering both solid-liquid and gas-liquid-solid flows. The modelling of the three-phase flow in a bubble column was achieved in the case of injecting a slug of solid particles into the column for 10 seconds at a velocity of 0.1 m s -1 and then the gas phase flow was initiated with a superficial gas velocity of 0.02 cm s -1 .

Local hydrodynamics modeling of a gas–liquid–solid three‐phase bubble column

“…However, fitting parameters and a uniform bubble diameter had to be used in the calculations; moreover the integral gas holdup prediction could not account for the flow regimes and the axial liquid velocities were systematically underestimated. Glover and Generalis presented a 2D mixture model for simulating the gas–liquid–solid flows in a 5:1 aspect ratio bubble column without considering the interphase forces, and a uniform bubble diameter was used 33. Contours of the mixture velocity vector, gas holdup and solid holdup were predicted by the model with a conclusion that the introduction of a solid phase transport did not disrupt the flow structure of the gas phase compared with the gas–liquid flow, although no experimental validation of the model was done.…”