Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Generation and Coalescence of Bubbles in Non‐Newtonian Fluids

The successive generation and coalescence behaviors of bubbles from two parallel nozzles in non‐Newtonian fluids were numerically simulated by using the volume of fluid (VOF) method. Three flow patterns for bubbles and the related flow regime transition lines were obtained. Two critical nozzle intervals exist: one for the bubble coalescence before pinch‐off, and another for alternating bubble formation then in‐line coalescence under different conditions. Two correlations were proposed to predict the dimensionless critical nozzle intervals for the transition of bubble‐flow patterns. The influences of nozzle diameter, gas flow rate, nozzle interval, and rheological properties of fluid on bubble‐flow patterns were investigated systematically.     

非牛顿流体中气泡群传质的研究

CO2气泡群在液相中的传质在化工过程中广泛存在.对CO2气泡群在3种不同流体(牛顿流体、非弹性剪切变稀流体和黏弹性剪切变稀流体)中的气液传质过程进行了研究.利用CO2探针测定了不同操作条件下CO2的体积传质系数,考察了液相浓度,气体流量以及流变性质对体积传质系数的影响.结果表明:在3种流体中,体积传质系数均随气体流量的...     

Three‐Dimensional Simulation of Bubble Formation Through a Microchannel T‐Junction

Three‐dimensional simulations of bubble formation in Newtonian and non‐Newtonian fluids through a microchannel T‐junction are conducted by the volume‐of‐fluid method. For Newtonian fluids, the critical capillary number Ca for the transition of the bubble breakup mechanism is dependent on the velocity ratio between the two phases and the microchannel dimension. For the power law fluid, the bubble diameter decreases and the generation frequency increases with higher viscosity parameter K and power law index n. For a Bingham fluid, the viscous force plays a more important role in microbubble formation. Due to the yield stress τ_y, a high‐viscous region is developed in the central area of the channel and bubbles deform to a flat ellipsoid shape in this region. The bubble diameter and generation frequency are almost independent of K.     

Gas Holdup and Solid‐Liquid Mass Transfer in Newtonian and non‐Newtonian Fluids in Bubble Columns

Gas holdup and surface‐liquid mass transfer rate in a bubble column have been experimentally investigated. De‐mineralized water, 0.5 and 1.0% aqueous solutions of carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC), and 60% aqueous propylene glycol have been used as the test liquids. Effects of column diameter, liquid height to column diameter ratio, superficial gas velocity and liquid phase viscosity on gas holdup and mass transfer rate are studied. Generalized correlations for the average gas holdup and wall to liquid heat and mass transfer coefficients are proposed. These are valid for both Newtonian and pseudoplastic non‐Newtonian fluids.     

鼓泡反应器中幂律型流体流动与传质特性

很多废水处理装置涉及非牛顿型流体中的多相流动和传质问题,研究其中的气液传质过程有助于实现装置的优化设计和高效节能运行。以鼓泡反应器内清水和不同质量分数的羧甲基纤维素钠（CMC）水溶液为实验对象,分别研究气相表观气速和液相流变特性对气泡尺寸分布、全局气含率和体积氧传质系数的影响。实验结果表明,液相的流变特性对其传质特性参数均有较大影响。与清水相比,CMC水溶液中气泡平均直径和分布范围更大;清水和CMC水溶液的全局气含率均随表观气速的增加而增大;CMC水溶液的体积氧传质系数随CMC水溶液质量分数的增加而减小。基于实验研究,得出修正的体积氧传质系数公式和适用于幂律型非牛顿流体流动体系氧传递过程的无量纲关联式,可很好地实现非牛顿流体流动的废水处理装置中气液传质参数的计算。     

三相下喷式环流反应器的传质性能

在三相非牛顿型流体体系中，对下喷式环流反应器传质特性进行了实验研究。讨论了表观气速、能量耗散速率、导流筒直径与反应器直径比、喷嘴直径、导流筒下端距反应器底部的距离、固体装填量、羧甲基纤维素钠（ＣＭＣ）溶液浓度及其流变特性对它的影响。实验结果表明，容积传质系数随表观气速和能量耗散速率的增加有所增加，在实验条件下，发现最优的导流筒直径与反应器直径比在０．４～０．４５这一范围、固体装填量大约为３％（体积百分比）、导流筒下端距反应器底部的距离为０．０８ｍ左右。同时提出了容积传质系数的经验关联式。     

激光成像技术在气泡生成行为研究中的应用

针对液相中单喷嘴的气泡生成过程,采用激光成像技术结合电荷耦合器件(Charge Coupling Device, CCD)摄像机照相方法研究了甘油水溶液中的气泡生成行为,结果表明该法能够获得清晰的二维气泡放大图像. 考察了溶液浓度、气室体积、喷嘴直径和气体流量对气泡分离体积的影响,发现气泡分离体积分别随着溶液浓度和气室体积的增大而增大;在所研究的喷嘴直径(1, 1.5和2 mm)范围内,气泡分离体积随着喷嘴直径的增大而减小;气体流量对气泡分离体积的影响与喷嘴直径有关,当喷嘴直径为1和1.5 mm时,气泡分离体积随着气体流量的升高而增大,但当喷嘴直径为2 mm时,气泡分离体积随着气体流量的升高先减小后增大.     

Coalescence Deformation of Bubble Pairs Generated from Twin Nozzles in CMC Solutions

A coupled level‐set/volume‐of‐fluid method, under the consideration of the rheological characteristics of a fluid, is employed to investigate numerical coalescence deformation of bubble pairs generated at two adjacent nozzles in carboxymethyl cellulose aqueous solutions. The satisfactory agreement between numerical results and experimental measurements proves the validity of this approach in predicting the surface evolution of bubbles. Simulated results show that the bubble coalescence process involves four stages of independent growth, rapid mergence, radial expansion, and vertical stretching. The various effects of surfactant concentration, gas flow rate, nozzle spacing, and nozzle diameter on the aspect ratio depend greatly on each coalescence period.     

牛顿及非牛顿流体中的气泡生成与对比

采用激光成像结合CCD摄像技术分别对牛顿及非牛顿流体(甘油和羧甲基纤维素钠水溶液)中的气泡生成行为进行了研究,对2种流体气泡生成过程中气泡形状和体积变化进行了比较。分析了非牛顿流体的弹性效应对气泡生成过程气泡形状的影响。实验结果表明,在实验条件范围内,甘油中,气泡生长初期,气泡体积增加较快,到了后期,增加幅度减缓,气速对气泡生长过程气泡体积影响很小;羧甲基纤维素钠(CMC)水溶液中,气泡生长初期,气泡缓慢生长,气速对气泡体积影响很小,到了后期,气泡体积增加幅度变大,气泡体积随着气速的增大而增大。     

Ammonia absorption from a bubble expanding at a submerged orifice into water

To investigate the mechanism of gas absorption from a bubble containing soluble and insoluble components, a gaseous mixture of ammonia and nitrogen was bubbled into water. The growth curve, volume, surface area and shape of the growing bubbles were measured with parameters such as inlet gas composition, gas flow rate and gas chamber volume. The bubble volume decreased with the increasing composition of ammonia in a bubble, decreasing gas chamber volume and decreasing gas flow rate.To reasonably express the mass transfer from the bulk of a gas in a bubble to the bulk of a liquid, the overall mass transfer resistance was evaluated by the mass transfers in the gas phase, interface and liquid phase.The non-spherical bubble formation model combined with the overall mass transfer resistance estimated well experimental bubble shape, bubble volume at its detachment from an orifice, growth rate and mass transfer rate.Moreover, the change of concentration with bubble growth time and the fractional absorption during bubble formation were simulated.     

Orifice Flowmeter for Measuring Extensional Rheological Properties

Extensional rheological properties play an important role in processes in which the fluid is subjected to highly decelerated or accelerated flows. This paper describes an orifice flowmeter used to measure extensional properties of rheologically complex fluids at high strain rates. The operating principle of the flowmeter is based on the pressure drop due to the flow through a small size orifice. The flowmeter was first calibrated, by plotting the pressure drop‐flow rate curve of the orifice, in terms of a dimensionless Euler number versus Reynolds number. Newtonian fluids consisting of aqueous solutions of corn syrup were used as calibration fluids. The calibration curve was then used to determine the apparent extensional viscosity of three different paper coating colors. The apparent extensional viscosity is compared to the shear viscosity in terms of the Trouton ratio. The Trouton ratio for one coating color is shown to exceed considerably the theoretical value of 3 expected for Newtonian fluids.     

Experimental study on the influence of the orifice size on hydrodynamic characteristics and bubble size distribution of an external loop airlift reactor

The orifice size has a significant influence on hydrodynamic characteristics and bubble size distribution (BSD) in gas-liquid flow. However, the mechanism of the influence of orifice size on BSD and hydrodynamic characteristics in an external loop airlift reactor (EL-ALR) has not been fully revealed. In this work, the effects of the orifice size on hydrodynamic characteristics and BSD in a laboratory scale EL-ALR were investigated using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique and digital image analysis (DIA). The results show that the transition superficial gas velocity becomes greater when the orifice size is reduced. The time-averaged bubble velocity profiles along the riser radius are parabolic, and the shape of the time-averaged bubble velocity curve is strongly dependent on the orifice diameter. The larger the orifice diameter, the steeper the parabolas. For sparger with lager orifice diameters, the BSD curve is bimodal even at low superficial gas velocity, and its peaks shift to a larger equivalent bubble diameter. The bubble aspect ratio appears to be related only to the equivalent diameter of the bubbles, regardless of the diameter of the orifice. It has a defined relationship between the bubble aspect ratio and the bubble equivalent diameter, and a new correlation is obtained based on the experimental data. This study will help to gain an understanding of the influence of sparger orifice size on the hydrodynamic characteristics and BSD and provide a basis for numerical simulation.     

低气速条件下CO_2在牛顿及非牛顿流体中气含率

实验测定了低气速下CO2气泡群在牛顿流体、剪切变稀流体及黏弹性流体中的气含率。讨论了流体的流变性、质量分数及表观气速对气含率的影响。结果表明:在3种不同性质的流体中,气含率均随表观气速的增大而增大。同时发现流体性质对气含率具有不同的影响:对于牛顿流体,表观气速较低时,质量分数对气含率影响可忽略;对于非牛顿流体,气含率随着流动指数n的减小而减小,即剪切变稀效应对气含率有负作用,而黏弹性对气含率的影响可忽略。气含率是气液传质过程设计中最重要的参数,因此研究结果为进一步研究CO2气泡群在非牛顿流体中的传质奠定了一定基础。     

一串上升气泡周围流体的湍动特性(英文)

The turbulence behavior of gas-liquid two-phase flow plays an important role in heat transfer and mass transfer in many chemical processes. In this work, a 2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to investigate the turbulent characteristic of fluid induced by a chain of bubbles rising in Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. The instantaneous flow field, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and TKE dissipation rate were measured. The results demonstrated that the TKE profiles were almost symmetrical along the column center and showed higher values in the central region of the column. The TKE was enhanced with the increase of gas flow and decrease of liquid viscosity. The maximum TKE dissipation rate appeared on both sides of the bubble chain, and increased with the increase of gas flow rate or liquid viscosity. These results provide an understanding for gas-liquid mass transfer in non-Newtonian fluids.     

应用激光成像系统研究非牛顿流体中的气泡生成

A self-developed laser image measurement system was established to study the behavior of bubble formation at a single orifice in non-Newtonian polyacrylamide （PAAm） solutions. Images of bubbles were captured by a CCD camera and volumes of bubbles were digitally analyzed online. The effects of rheological property of PAAm solution, orifice, reservoir, and gas flowrate on bubble formation were studied experimentally. It is found that the volume of bubble increases with the concentration of PAAm solution, the diameter of the orifice, and the gas flowrate, respectively, whereas little effect of reservoir is observed in experiments.     

Experimental investigation on dynamic behaviour of bubbles emerging from micro-capillary orifice in a flow channel

The flow phenomenon of liquid with bubbles is widespread in various industrial fields, which determines the mass transfer characteristics of the equipment. In this work, the dynamic behaviour of bubbles emerging from micro-capillary orifice in a flow channel was studied by a visualization experiment, while the effects of gas flow rate and liquid flow rate on these processes of bubble growth, departure, and inrush were explored. The experimental results showed that one bubble formation cycle can be divided into three stages: Waiting, departure, and inrush, as well as the dynamic behaviour of bubble emerging from micro-capillary orifice in a flow channel, were significantly affected by gas flow rate and liquid flow rate. At a higher gas flow rate, the growth time and the departure time were shorter, as well as the departure volume of the leading bubble and the inrush volume of the trailing bubble were smaller, while the transverse longitudinal ratio fluctuated more violently, and the swing amplitude of the bubble centroid was greater. With an increasing liquid flow rate, the growth time, the departure time, and the inrush time shortened, while the departure volume of the leading bubble decreased and the fluctuation of the bubble centroid weakened. These findings are conducive to improving the performance of the equipment by optimizing the design of the aerator to regulate the dynamic behaviour of bubbles.     

Bubble size in a forced circulation loop reactor

BACKGROUND: The bubble size distribution in gas‐liquid reactors influences gas holdup, residence time distribution, and gas‐liquid interfacial area for mass transfer. This work reports on the effects of independently varied gas and liquid flow rates on steady‐state bubble size distributions in a new design of forced circulation loop reactor operated with an air–water system. The reactor consisted of a cylindrical vessel (～26 L nominal volume, gas‐free aspect ratio ≈ 6, downcomer‐to‐riser cross‐sectional area ratio of 0.493) with a concentric draft tube and an annular riser zone. Both gas and liquid were in forced flow through a sparger that had been designed for minimizing the bubble size. RESULTS: Photographically measured bubble size distributions in the riser zone could be approximated as normal distributions for the combinations of gas and liquid flow rates used. This contrasted with other kinds of size distributions (e.g. bimodal, Gaussian) that have been reported for other types of gas‐liquid reactors. Most of the bubbles were in the 3 to 5 mm diameter range. At any fixed low value of aeration rate (≤1.8 × 10^?4 m³s^?1), increase in the liquid flow rate caused earlier detachment of bubbles from the sparger holes to reduce the Sauter mean bubble size in the riser region. CONCLUSION: Unlike in conventional bubble columns where bimodal and Gaussian bubble size distributions have been reported, a normal bubble size distribution is attained in forced circulation loop reactors with an air–water system over the entire range of operation. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

气体入口角度和截面宽高比对微通道内泰勒气泡行为的影响

微通道的几何参数对于气泡或者液滴在其中的形成过程有着显著的影响。采用流体体积法(VOF法)研究了不同气体入口角度以及不同通道截面宽高比对微通道内气液两相流流动状况的影响。在所研究的操作范围内,各个微通道内的两相流流型均为泰勒流,并且在大多数情况下气泡长度分布均匀。在通道截面宽高比为0.5～2条件下,60°的气体入口角度有利于产生较短的气泡;如果通道截面宽高比达到4或8时,45°的气体入口角度更有利于形成较短的气泡。此外,随着通道截面宽高比的增大,通道内气泡的量纲1长度也随之增大,气泡长度分布的均匀性也逐渐变差。当通道截面宽高比增大到8时气泡长度分布变得很不均匀。     

Prediction of bubble diameter at detachment from a wall orifice in liquid cross-flow under reduced and normal gravity conditions

Bubble formation and detachment is an integral part of the two-phase flow science. The objective of the present work is to theoretically investigate the effects of liquid cross-flow velocity, gas flow rate embodied in the momentum flux force, and orifice diameter on bubble formation and detachment in a wall-bubble injection configuration. A two-dimensional one-stage theoretical model based on a global force balance on the bubble evolving from a wall orifice in a cross liquid flow is presented in this work. In this model, relevant forces acting on the evolving bubble are expressed in terms of the bubble center of mass coordinates and solved simultaneously. Relevant forces in low gravity included the momentum flux, shear-lift, surface tension, drag and inertia forces. Under normal gravity conditions, the buoyancy force, which is dominant under such conditions, can be added to the force balance. Two detachment criteria were applicable depending on the gas to liquid momentum force ratio. For low ratios, the time when the bubble acceleration in the direction of the detachment angle is greater or equal to zero is calculated from the bubble x and y coordinates. This time is taken as the time at which all the detaching forces that are acting on the bubble are greater or equal to the attaching forces. For high gas to liquid momentum force ratios, the time at which the y coordinate less the bubble radius equals zero is calculated. The bubble diameter is evaluated at this time as the diameter at detachment from the fact that the bubble volume is simply given by the product of the gas flow rate and time elapsed. Comparison of the model's predictions was also made with predictions from a two-dimensional normal gravity model based on Kumar-Kuloor formulation and such a comparison is presented in this work.     

支流电场中的单气泡行为

The investigation on bubble behavior in electric field helps to analyze the mechanism of electric enhancement of boiling heat transfer. Experiments were performed to investigate the bubble deformation in direct current （DC） electric field with bubbles attached to the orifice. The air bubbles were slowly generated in the transformer oil pool at different orifices, so that the effect of flow on bubble shape was eliminated. The results showed that the bubbles were elongated and the departure volume decreased when the electric field was intensified. The major and minor axes, aspect ratio and departure volume increased with increasing the orifice diameter. Both the electric field and orifice size have great influence on bubble behavior. The bubble deformation was also simulated to compare with the experimental results. The numerical and experimental data qualitatively agree with each other.