Quantifying the Fibre Effect on Gas Holdup in a Co‐Current Air‐Water‐Fibre Bubble Column

Fibre type and mass fraction have significant effects on gas holdup in gas‐liquid‐fibre bubble columns. An experimental study is introduced to identify a parameter that simultaneously characterizes the fibre type and mass fraction effects on gas holdup in gas‐liquid‐fibre bubble columns. This parameter satisfies the following condition: when this parameter is constant, the gas holdup trend in different fibre suspensions is generally similar at most operating conditions. A method is proposed to identify a characterization parameter by combining the crowding factor and fibre number density. The identified parameter is I c =1n(N c 0.8 N f 0.2 ). This parameter can be used to model gas holdup in gas‐liquid‐fibre bubble columns and quantitatively compare the fibre effects in different fibre suspensions.