Experimental Measurement and CFD-PBM Simulation of Bubble Size Distribution in a Gas-Liquid Taylor Vortex Reactor

Bubbly gas-liquid Taylor-Couette vortex flow has gathered increasing interest because of its potential applications to a variety of chemical and biochemical processing problems. The evolution of the bubble size distribution in these systems influences the hydrodynamics and interphase mass transfer. In order to quantitatively capture the bubble size evolution and its effect on the hydrodynamics, a two-fluid CFD-PBM model was developed for the simulation of bubble-bubble interactions (e.g. coalescence and breakage) in bubbly turbulent Taylor-Couette flow and compared with experimental data. The direct quadrature method of moments (DQMOM) was used to solve the populous balance model (PBM) as it requires relatively low computational cost. The performance of several widely used combinations of aggregation and breakage kernels was assessed, and simulations were shown to accurately predict bubble size distribution and bubble volume fraction for a wide range of flow conditions. These results may provide important guidance for reactor design and scale-up.