Using a Lagrangian-Lagrangian approach for studying flow behavior inside a bubble column

Abstract

Bubble columns are widely encountered in several industries, especially in the field of nuclear safety. The Eulerian-Eulerian and the Eulerian-Lagrangian methods are commonly used to investigate bubble columns. Eulerian approaches require additional tasks such as strict volume conservation at the interface and a predefined well-structured grid. In contrast, the Lagrangian approach can be easily implemented. Hence, we introduce a fully Lagrangian approach for the simulation of bubble columns using the discrete bubble model (DBM) and moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) methods. Additionally, we propose a rigorous method to estimate the volume fraction accurately, and verified it through experimental data and analytical results. The MPS method was compared with the experimental data of Dambreak. The DBM was verified by analyzing the terminal velocity of a single bubble for each bubble size. It agreed with the analytical results for each of the four drag correlations. Additionally, the improved method for calculating the volume fraction showed agreement with the Ergun equation for the pressure drop in a packed bed. The implemented MPS-DBM was used to simulate the bubble column, and the results were compared with the experimental results. We demonstrated that the MPS-DBM was in quantitative agreement with the experimental data.

Keywords

• Bubble column
• Discrete bubble method (DBM)
• Moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method
• Lagrangian-Lagrangian simulation
• Volume fraction
• Drag correlation