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Simulations of Bubble Column Reactors Using a Volume of Fluid Approach: Effect of Air Distributor
Author(s) -
Akhtar M. Abid,
Tadé Moses,
Pareek Vishnu
Publication year - 2007
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.5450850304
Subject(s) - distributor , bubble , mechanics , turbulence , computational fluid dynamics , volume (thermodynamics) , solver , volume of fluid method , fluent , materials science , surface tension , constant (computer programming) , physics , thermodynamics , mathematics , flow (mathematics) , computer science , mathematical optimization , programming language
Abstract Two‐ and three‐dimensional numerical simulations have been performed on a laboratory scale bubble column reactor using a volume‐of‐fluid approach. The effect of hole‐size and superficial gas velocity on the bubble size distribution and their trajectories has been investigated on a 20 cm diameter and 1 m high cylindrical reactor. All simulations were performed in a transient manner using a FLUENT solver. Surface tension between two phases has been modelled as a body force with a constant value. Turbulence was modelled using the k‐ϵ turbulence approach. A comparison between simulation predictions and the reported experimental studies has shown a good agreement.