CFD Simulation of Gas-Liquid Flow in a Pressurized Bubble Column
QIN Yu-Jian, JIN Hai-Bo
1.College of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology;2.Department of Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology
Abstract：
Numerical simulation of gas-liquid flow in a pressurized cylindrical bubble column with two-fluid approach were conducted for system pressures varying from 0.5 MPa to 2.0 MPa and superficial gas velocities from 0.120 m/s to 0.312 m/s. In the simulations, air is used as the gas phase and tap water as liquid phase. Euler-Euler model and population balance model (PBM) which predicted bubble size changes characterized were incorporated into the simulations. In the models, the effect of bubble breakup and coalescence were taken into consideration. A standard k-ε turbulence model was used to describe liquid phase turbulence viscosity in the simulations. The simulations only adopted the drag force for inter phase momentum exchange. The time-averaged gas/liquid velocities and local gas holdups were obtained from the simulations. The time-averaged gas velocities and local gas hold-ups were compared with experimental data and showed good agreement between measured and predicted data. The radial profiles of liquid velocities were in good agreement with the results of the literatures.
2013, Vol. 30 
