Bubble flow in trickle beds: investigations using resistive sensors

The local hydrodynamics of co-current gas-liquid down-flow through porous media are investigated in a quasi two-dimensional regular arrangement by means of a network of resistive sensors. The investigations are focused on a liquid continuous flow regime, the dispersed bubble flow, where the gas is divided into elongated bubbles. Due to the variation of the local flow channel orientation and the local void fraction, the average bubble velocity strongly depends on the local geometry. The flow is more coherent in vertical constrictions, compared to all other types of sites, this is probably due to bubble stagnation in the flow channel enlargements. At a given liquid superficial velocities and for sufficiently high superficial gas velocities, the average bubble size is independent of the gas flow rate; it is of the order of magnitude of the volume of the enlargements of the porous medium. The maximum bubble size is about three times its average size, corresponding thus to the coalescence of three average sized bubbles.