The hydrodynamic analysis of the two-phase flow in the bubble column

Abstract

Bubble columns are widely used as gas/liquid contactor. Their Applications affect the che- mical, petrochemical and organic industry. They provide several advantages during operation and maintenance such as high heat and mass transfer rates, compactness and low operating and maintenance costs. In this work, an experimental study was carried out in a bubble column with an internal diameter of 144mm for an air-water two-phase combination. In order to study the two-phase pressure drop in the bubble column three absolute pressure transdicers were used for different gas superficial velocities. Tests were run with the gas superficial velocities ranged from 0.022 to 3.5 m/s. The pressure drop analysis was conducted. It showed that for the two-phase flow the pressure drop depends on the flow configuration. The two-phase pressure drop measurement technique was used to calculate the void fraction. Examination of the pressure signal time series as well as the visual analysis made it possible to identify the different flow configurations obtained. Spectral Power Density (PSD) has been applied to pressure signal time series to quantify the frequency of two-phase structure. The latter showed persistence of frequency for most of the conditions except that at low gas superficial velocities were a higher frequency are observed.