Modelling of bubble column hydrodynamics using CFD and SQMOM as a population balance solver

Abstract The complex interactions between the turbulent flow field, bubble size distribution, mass transfer and chemical reactions make the design of bubble column reactors a challenging task. Especially at broad bubble size distributions the commonly used QMOM is not able to track the different velocities of small and large bubbles, while the classes methods are limited due to a high computational load. In this work, we extended our CFD-Sectional QMOM (SQMOM) (Drumm et al., 2008) to model and simulate bubbly gas flow in a rectangular column. For this purpose, we established a setup to measure, in 18 different zones of a rectangular bubble column, the bubble size distribution, the bubble velocity and bubble orientation. The coalescence and breakage model parameters are extracted in a parameter study using the software Dakota for a single case. A satisfactory agreement between local values of three experimentally investigated flow rates and simulations are found without further adjustment of the parameters. This work enables therefore a characterization of heterogeneous bubbly regimes including breakage and coalescence as found in industrial reactive bubble columns.