Abstract
Bubble columns are widely used in the chemical, petrochemical and biochemical industry. The correct prediction of the fluid dynamics, gas hold-up and bubble size distribution is of importance for the design and development of such reactors. For this, experimental as well as numerical methods are widely used to study these reactors, since the numerical simulations have made significant progress in the last years for this kind of multiphase flow.
In this contribution we have investigated numerically 3D lab scale bubble columns to validate the predictive capabilities of the commercial CFD solver STAR-CCM+ by CD-adapco. For the simulation of the two phase flow an Eulerian-Eulerian approach was used. Several forces which interact between both phases are taken into account: drag force, lift force, turbulent dispersion force, virtual mass force and the turbulence induced by bubbles.
Validation is done with respect to plume oscillation frequency, liquid and bubble velocity and gas holdup against published data. A reasonable agreement between the numerical and experimental results was found. Further the importance of the different interaction forces could be shown: the virtual mass force is of minor importance, while the lift force influences strongly the oscillation of the plume.
