Tracking of Bubble Trajectories in Vertical Pipes in Bubbly Flow Regime by Coupling Lagrangian, Eulerian and 3D Random Walks Models: Validation with Experimental Data

Abstract

A set of air-water experiments has been performed under isothermal upward concurrent flow conditions, in a vertical column. The interfacial velocity, the bubble interfacial area and the void fraction distributions have been measured. Numerical simulation of these experiments were performed by coupling a Lagrangian code which tracks the 3D motion of the individual bubbles, with an Eulerian one. In the Eulerian solver the velocity and turbulence fields of the liquid phase were computed by solving the time dependent conservation equations in its Reynolds Averaged Transport Equation form (RANS). The turbulent kinetic energy k, and the dissipation rate transport equations were simultaneously solved by using the k, epsilon model in a (r,z) grid by the finite volume method and the SIMPLER algorithm. Both Lagrangian and Eulerian calculations were performed in parallel and an iterative self-consistent method was developed. The turbulence induced by the bubbles is an important issue considered in this paper, in order to obtain good predictions of the void fraction distribution and the interfacial velocity at different gas and liquid flow conditions. The Eulerian Code was upgraded from an axisymmetric 2D code to a 3D code in order to improve the turbulence solution. The results of the 3D CFD code have been tested and show a good agreement with the experimental results. In this paper special attention is given to the coupling between the different models.