Computational Study of the Effect of Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Bubbly Flows on Bulk Gas–Liquid Heat Transfer

Abstract

Abstract A numerical investigation is performed on buoyancy-driven homogeneous and heterogeneous bubbly flows to compare the bulk gas–liquid heat transfer effectiveness for Prandtl (Pr) numbers 0.2–20 and void fractions 〈αg〉 0.3–0.5. For this purpose, transient two-fluid model simulations of bubbles rising in a stagnant pool of liquid are conducted in a rectangular box by applying periodic boundary conditions to all the sides. The temperature difference (ΔT) between gas and liquid phase is averaged over the rectangular box and monitored with respect to time, the heat transfer rate is studied based on the time at which the ΔT tends to zero. The results of numerical study show that at low Pr numbers, faster decay of ΔT is observed for homogeneous flow of bubbles indicating higher heat transfer rate in comparison with the heterogeneous flow of bubbles for the same void fraction. On the contrary, for high Pr numbers, higher heat transfer rate is observed in heterogeneous flow compared to the homogeneous. The comparison of heat transfer behavior between different void fractions for heterogeneous flow show that, for low Pr numbers higher heat transfer rate is achieved for void fraction 0.4 in comparison with void fraction 0.5. And for high Pr numbers, higher heat transfer is observed for void fraction 0.5 in comparison with void fraction 0.4.