Modeling of co-current and counter-current bubble columns with an extended EMMS approach--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Guan, X., & Yang, N. (2019). Modeling of co-current and counter-current bubble columns with an extended EMMS approach. Particuology, 44, 126-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2018.07.009

Modeling of co-current and counter-current bubble columns with an extended EMMS approach

Xiaoping Guan ^*, Ning Yang ^*

State Key Laboratory of Multi-phase Complex System, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 353, Beijing 100190, China

10.1016/j.partic.2018.07.009

Volume 44, June 2019, Pages 126-135

Received 11 April 2018, Revised 16 July 2018, Accepted 24 July 2018, Available online 15 January 2019, Version of Record 30 April 2019.

E-mail: xpguan@ipe.ac.cn; nyang@ipe.ac.cn

Highlights

• EMMS approach is extended to co-current and counter-current bubble columns.

• The predicted structure parameters reproduce liquid velocity effects in experiments.

• CFD with DBS drag model well predicts overall and local gas holdup for all operation modes.

Abstract

Bubble columns can be operated in semi-batch, co-current or counter-current mode. This study attempts to extend the dual-bubble-size (DBS) model, viz., the energy-minimization multi-scale (EMMS) model for gas–liquid systems, to co-current and counter-current bubble columns. With the increase of superficial liquid velocity, the predicted total gas holdup and regime transition are in accordance with experiments. A DBS drag model was then developed and incorporated into the CFD simulation. The total gas holdup and local gas holdup radial distribution in both the co-current and counter-current bubble columns are well estimated. The findings in the present work demonstrate that developing closure laws through the stability condition is of great significance in modeling complicated multi-scale flow in bubble columns.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Co-current; Counter-current; Bubble columns; CFD; Drag model

文章导读