Theoretical model for multiple breakup of fluid particles in turbulent flow field

Generalized phenomenological model, based on the theories of probability and isotropic turbulence, is developed for multiple breakup of fluid particles in turbulent flow field. The approach uses a series of successive binary breakup events occur at a time scale comparable to the colliding eddy turnover time. It was found that the use of energy density, instead of energy, will increase the predicted binary breakup rate which is usually underestimated by the existing models in the literature. Generalization of the binary breakup model for multiple fragmentations is performed by defining a “remaining energy function” for the colliding eddy which means the contribution of original eddy to the later breakup events. For ternary breakage, the model shows a reasonably good agreement with the experimental data. The quaternary fragmentation frequency, however, is of negligible importance at lower energy dissipation rates but its contribution to breakage fraction at higher energy dissipation rates becomes considerable. The results also show that ternary and quaternary breakups have a considerable 90% contribution to the overall fragmentation, while pentenary and further fragmentations are of lower importance at low energy dissipation rates. At higher levels of energy dissipation rate, fragmentations up to six daughter particles contribute to more than 95% of the overall fragmentations. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 62: 4508–4525, 2016