An Eulerian-Eulerian Approach to CFD Simulation of Two-Phase Bubble Column using ANSYS CFX Code

Bubble columns are widely used as gas-liquid contactors and reactors in chemical, biochemical and petrochemical industries. Effective mixing, high interfacial area between phases, cheap to install and lack of moving parts are the main factors bubble column is chosen for the described processes. Understanding the complexity of the fluid dynamics of gas-liquid flow in bubble column is important due to its unsteady complex processes as well as application in the chemical and bioprocess industries. The gas-liquid of two-phase fluid flow system has been carried out to investigate the hydrodynamics parameters. An Eulerian-Eulerian approach was used to model air as the dispersed phase within a continuous phase of water using the commercial software ANSYSTM CFD software (CFX 14.0). The turbulence in the gas-liquid simulation is described by using the k-e model. This process occurs under the atmospheric pressure. The configuration of model consists of 0.2 m width, 0.2 m depth and 0.5 m height of rectangular bubble column equipped with a sparger at the bottom. Two different sparger designs, Sparger A with 4 holes and 2.6 mm diameter each and Sparger B with 81 holes and 0.5 mm diameter each are tested for three different value of superficial gas velocity of 0.0125 m/s, 0.0501 m/s and 0.0627 m/s. The volume fraction of model is described the behavior of bubble which is represented by the parameters of gas holdup, contact surface area and gas superficial velocity. The simulation was verified by comparing the two different model results. Comparison of simulation results with the experimental work data has provided a successful validation of the model. Results shows the contact surface area increasing with behavior of bubble and gas holdup increases with increasing superficial gas velocity but independent of the sparger design at high superficial velocity (>0.05 m/s). The highest value obtained which is represented of water superficial velocity, gas holdup and superficial gas velocity from model with Sparger B is 0.015 m/s, 0.00016 and 0.00627 m/s respectively. These produced results reveal that ANSYS CFX, k-e model have excellent potential to simulate the two-phase flow system. (author)