Validation of Two-Fluid Simulations of a Pseudo-Two-Dimensional Bubble Column with Uniform and Nonuniform Aeration

The multiphase flow simulated in this work corresponds to the pseudo-2D bubble-column experiments at Delft University of Technology (Harteveld et al. Can. J. Chem. Eng. 2003, 81, 389-394). As in the work of Monahan and Fox (AlChE J. 2007, 53, 9-18), the complete set of interphase force models includes drag, added-mass, lift, rotation, and strain. The simulation results are presented in the form of comparisons with the experimental data for the time-averaged gas holdup and the instantaneous and time-averaged air and liquid velocity fields. Overall, the qualitative and quantitative comparisons between experiments and simulations are satisfactory for both uniform and nonuniform aeration. In particular, the model predicts the flow pattems observed in the experiments, but in some cases at slightly different values of the amount of aeration. In the latter cases, it is shown that changing the model parameters does not improve the agreement with experiments. However, changing the liquid-velocity boundary condition from zero stress to zero slip leads to a small improvement.