The effect of probability of coalescence on the evolution of bubble sizes in a turbulent pipeline flow: A numerical study

A population balance method in which continuum and discrete phases are integrated is developed to simulate the evolution of polydisperse population of bubbles in a turbulent pipeline flow. The investigation is focused on the effect of the coalescence efficiency on this evolution. A dilute system of bubbles under microgravity conditions is considered. It is found that if the initial coalescence efficiency is low, a slight increase produces a significant effect on the bubble coalescence rate, and thus on the evolution of the population. If, however, the initial coalescence efficiency is high, its increase results in a marginal effect on the way the population evolves. The results of simulations are validated against experimental data on the population mean.

[1]  Y. Leonenko,et al.  Using discrete simulation of microprocesses in dispersed phases in analyzing multiphase flows with reactions , 2005 .

[2]  U. Frisch.  Turbulence: The Legacy of A. N. Kolmogorov , 1996 .

[3]  Mamoru Ishii,et al.  One-group interfacial area transport in vertical bubbly flow , 1998 .

[4]  Catherine Colin,et al.  Bubble coalescence in turbulent flows: A mechanistic model for turbulence-induced coalescence applied to microgravity bubbly pipe flow , 2001 .

[5]  Hallvard F. Svendsen,et al.  A model for turbulent binary breakup of dispersed fluid particles , 2002 .

[6]  Stefan Heinrich,et al.  Improved accuracy and convergence of discretized population balance for aggregation: The cell average technique , 2006 .

[7]  A. W. Etchells,et al.  Bubble size in horizontal pipelines , 1987 .

[8]  I. Turunen,et al.  Experimental Determination of Bubble Coalescence and Break‐up Rates in a Bubble Column Reactor , 2008 .

[9]  Jam Hans Kuipers,et al.  Hydrodynamic modelling of dense gas-fluidised beds: Comparison of the kinetic theory of granular flow with 3D hard-sphere discrete particle simulations , 2002 .

[10]  D. Griffiths,et al.  MacCormack's method for advection-reaction equations , 2000 .

[11]  H. Blanch,et al.  Bubble coalescence and break‐up in air‐sparged bubble columns , 1990 .

[12]  Doraiswami Ramkrishna,et al.  Population Balances: Theory and Applications to Particulate Systems in Engineering , 2000 .

[13]  A multibody approach in granular dynamics simulations , 1997 .

[14]  Liang-Shih Fan,et al.  Some aspects of high-pressure phenomena of bubbles in liquids and liquid–solid suspensions , 1999 .

[15]  Raffi M. Turian,et al.  The critical velocity in pipeline flow of slurries , 1980 .

[16]  M. Hounslow,et al.  A discretized population balance for nucleation, growth, and aggregation , 1988 .

[17]  Jos Derksen,et al.  Population Balance Modeling of Aerated Stirred Vessels Based on CFD , 2002 .

[18]  M. J. Lockett,et al.  The influence of approach velocity on bubble coalescence , 1974 .

[19]  B. Massey,et al.  Mechanics of Fluids , 2018 .