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Local measurements for the study of external loop airlift hydrodynamics
Author(s) -
Utiger Marianne,
Guy Christophe,
Stuber Frank,
Duquenne AnneMarie,
Delmas Henri
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450770225
Subject(s) - mechanics , airlift , sparging , sauter mean diameter , bubble , flow (mathematics) , volumetric flow rate , materials science , computational fluid dynamics , thermodynamics , physics , chemistry , bioreactor , organic chemistry , nozzle
Hot‐film anemometry and an optical biprobe are used to measure local flow characteristics in the riser of an external loop airlift reactor. Important flow asymmetries are observed above the sparger and developing flow persists through a large part of the riser. As gas flow rate increases, radial gas hold‐up profiles change from relatively flat to parabolic while the shape of radial liquid velocity profiles remains constant and Sauter bubble diameter increases. At large gas superficial velocities, slip velocity is found to deviate considerably from the frequently used value of 0.25 m/s. Local measurements allow a better understanding of two‐phase flow in airlift reactors and can be used for CFD‐modeling development and validation.