Gas - Liquid Flows:

Theory and Simulation

Dr. Arun Mahalingam
Assistant Professor
Department of mechanical Engineering
National Institute of Technology Karnataka
 Outline
Introduction
Conservation equations
Modelling strategies :
Euler-Lagrangian
Eulerian - Eulerian
Interfacial Forces
Drag
Non-Drag Forces
Turbulence Interaction
Mixture Model
Validation example
 Introduction
Gasliquid flows occur in
many applications. The
motion of bubbles in a liquid
as well as droplets in a
conveying gas stream are
examples of gas liquid flows.
Bubble columns are
commonly used in several
process industries
Atomization to generate small
droplets for combustion is
important in power
generation systems
 Why Study Gas-Liquid Flows
The main interests in studying gas-liquid flows,
in devices like bubble columns or stirred tank
reactors, are:
Design and scale-up
Fluid dynamics and regime analysis
Hydrodynamic parameters
 Bubble Columns
To design bubble column reactors, the following
hydrodynamic parameters are required:
Specifc gasliquid interfacial area ()
Sauter mean bubble diameter, ()
Axial and radial dispersion coefficients of the gas and
liquid, ()
Heat and mass transfer coefficients, (, )
Gas holdup, ()
Physicochemical properties of the liquid medium, (, )
 Bubble Columns: Regime Analysis

Two types of flow regimes are

commonly observed in bubble
columns:
The bubbly flow regime,
< /
Bubbles are of relatively uniform small
sizes ( = )
Rise velocity does exceed 0.025m/s
Holdup shows linear dependence with
the flow
 Bubble Columns: Regime Analysis
The churn turbulent flow
regime :
> /
Bubble are Large bubbles (
> ) and show wide size
distribution
Rise velocity is in the range of
1-2m/s
 Bubble Columns:
Photographic Representation of Bubbly and Churn- Turbulent Flow Regimes
Design and Scale-up of Bubble Column
Reactors
 Euler-Lagrangian Method
In this approach, a single set of
conservation equations is solved for a
continuous phase.

The dispersed phase is explicitly

tracked by solving an appropriate
equation of motion in the Lagrangian
frame of reference through the
continuous phase flow feld.

The interaction between the

continuous and the dispersed phase is
taken into account with separate
models for drag, and non-drag forces
 Euler-Eulerian Method
In the Eulerian approach, both the continuous
and dispersed phases are considered to be
interpenetrating continua.
The Eulerian model describes the motion for
each phase in a macroscopic sense.
The flow description therefore consists of
differential equations describing the
conservation of mass, momentum and energy
for each phase separately.
 Conservation Equations

a
 Interphase Momentum Exchange
A key question is how to model
the inter-phase momentum
exchange
This is the force that acts on the
bubble and takes into account:
Effect of multi-bubble interaction
Gas holdup
Turbulent Interaction
Turbulent Dispersion
Turbulent Interaction
 Drag Force
For a single spherical bubble, rising at steady state, the drag
force is given by:

To estimate the drag force bubble diameter, ,is needed

The is often taken as the mean bubble size
For bubble columns operating at low gas superfcial velocities (<
5 cm/s) works reasonably well
For bubble columns operating at higher gas superfcial
velocities(> 5 cm/s), bubble breakup and coalesce dominate and
bubble size is no longer uniform and mean bubble size approach
may not be adequate .
 Drag Coefficient
The drag coefficient is likely to be
different for a single bubble and a bubble
swarm. This is because the shape and size
of a bubble in a swarm is different than that
of an isolated bubble
When the bubble size is small ( < 1mm
in water): bubble is approximately spherical
When the bubble size is large ( > 18mm
in water): bubble is approximately a
spherical cap
When the bubble of intermediate size:
bubbles exhibit complex shapes
 Non-Drag Forces
For gasliquid flows, non-drag forces have a
profound influence on the flow characteristics,
especially in dispersed flows
Bubbles rising in a liquid
can be subject to a
additional forces
including:
Lift Force
Wall Lubrication Force
Virtual Mass Force
Turbulence Dispersion
Force
 Lift Forces
When the liquid flow is non-uniform or rotational, bubbles
experience a lift force
This lift force depends on the bubble diameter, the relative
velocity between the phases, and the vorticity and is given by
the following form

The lift coefficient, , often is approximately constant in inertial

flow regime and ( < < ) and, following the
recommendations Drew and Lahey, it is set to 0.5
Lift forces are primarily responsible for inhomogeneous radial
distribution of the dispersed phase holdup and could be
important to include their effects in CFD simulations.
 Turbulent Dispersion forces
The turbulent dispersion force accounts for an
interaction between turbulent eddies and
particles
Results in a turbulent dispersion and
homogenization of the dispersed phase
distribution
The simplest way to model turbulent dispersion is
to assume gradient transport as follows:
 Virtual Mass Force
The virtual mass force represents
the force due to inertia of the
dispersed phase due to relative
acceleration
Large continuous-dispersed phase
density ratios, e.g. bubbly flows
Transient Flows can affect period
of oscillating bubble plume.
Strongly Accelerating Flows e.g.
bubbly flow through narrow
constriction.