Efficient simulation of bubble dispersion and resulting interaction

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

In this work, an efficient model for simulating bubble dispersion and coalescence due to turbulence is developed in the Euler-Lagrange framework. The primary liquid phase is solved on the Euler grid with the RANS turbulence model. Bubble motion is computed with the force balance equations. One-way coupling between two phases is assumed and the framework is designed for the computation of disperse bubbly flows at low Eötvös number. The turbulent dispersion of the dispersed phase is reconstructed with the continuous random walk (CRW) model. Bubble-bubble collisions and coalescence are accounted for deterministically. To accelerate the time-consuming search for potential collision partners in dense bubbly flows, the sweep and prune algorithm is employed, which can be utilized in arbitrary mesh types and sizes. Validation against experiments of turbulent pipe flows demonstrates that the one-way coupled EL-CRW dispersion model can well reproduce the bubble distribution in a typical dense bubbly pipe flow. Good agreement of the bubble size distribution at the pipe outlet between the simulation and the experiment is obtained.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)152-170
Number of pages19
JournalExperimental and Computational Multiphase Flow
Volume3
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85131182588
ORCID /0000-0003-1653-5686/work/170585444

Keywords

Keywords

  • Euler-Lagrange, bubble coalescence, collision detection, one-way coupling