INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT CLOSURES ON THE HYDRODYNAMICS OF BUBBLE COLUMN FLOWS

ABSTRACT Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations are performed for two-dimensional bubble columns to examine the effect of different interfacial force closures on the computed liquid velocity and gas holdup profiles. In this regard, six different drag closure relationships and three different virtual mass formulations are incorporated in the framework of the Los Alamos National Laboratory's code CFDLIB. The Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid model is used. The results are compared with the experimental results of Mudde et al. (1997), the gas holdup correlation of Anabtawi et al., (2003), and CFD simulations of Pan et al. (2000). With the exception of one, all the correlations studied give good agreement (within engineering accuracy) between the computed results and the experimental data.