Tutorial: Hydrodynamics of Bubble column reactors

Introduction
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide guidelines and recommendations for solving a gas-liquid bubble column problem using the multiphase mixture model, including advice on solver settings. This tutorial demonstrates how to do the following: Set up an unsteady bubble column. Use the mixture multiphase model. Solve the problem using appropriate solver settings. Postprocess the resulting data.

Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the FLUENT interface and that you have a good understanding of the basic setup and solution procedures. In this tutorial, you will use mixture multiphase model. This tutorial will not cover the mechanics of using this model. Instead, it will focus on the multiphase modeling of a gas liquid bubble column. If you have not used this model before, refer to the FLUENT 6.3 Tutorial Guide.

Problem Description
The representation of the problem is shown in Figure 1. The gas-liquid bubble ow is in a at bubble column with rectangular cross-section and essentially two-dimensional ow pattern. The main dimensions of the experimental apparatus are a length of 0.5 m and height of 1.5 m, which give a height-to-length ratio of 3. The gas is injected into the water column through a small inlet located 15 cm away from the left side wall. The inlet is 4 cm wide, and the air velocity at the inlet is very small, 6.6e-4 m/s. The mean diameter for the air bubbles is 3 mm.

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Figure 1: Schematic of the Gas-Liquid Bubble Column

Preparation
1. Copy the mesh le becker.msh to your working folder. 2. Start the 2D (2d) version of FLUENT.

Setup and Solution

Step 1: Grid 1. Read the mesh le (becker.msh). File Read Case... As the mesh is read , FLUENT will report the progress in the console. The mesh size will be reported as 1443 cells. 2. Check the grid. Grid Check FLUENT performs various checks on the mesh and reports the progress in the console. Make sure that the minimum volume reported is a positive number.

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3. Display the grid (Figure 2). Display Grid...

Grid

FLUENT 6.3 (2d, pbns, lam)

Figure 2: Grid Display Step 2: Models 1. Dene the solver settings. Dene Models Solver... The multiphase model is available only with the segregated solver. (a) Select Unsteady from the Time list. (b) Click OK to close the Solver panel. 2. Select the mixture multiphase model. Dene Models Multiphase... (a) Select Mixture from the Model list. (b) Enable Implicit Body Force Formulation. (c) Click OK to close the Multiphase panel.

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Step 3: Materials You will need to add the uid water to the list of uid materials by copying it from the FLUENTmaterials database. Dene Materials... 1. Click the Fluent Database... button to open the Fluent Database Materials panel.

(a) Select uid from the Material Type drop-down list. (b) Select water-liquid (h2o<l>) from the Fluent Fluid Materials selection list. (c) Click Copy and close the Fluent Database Materials panel. The properties will be downloaded from the database into your local list, and a copy of the properties will now be displayed in the Materials panel. 2. Click Change/Create and close the Materials panel.

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Hydrodynamics of Bubble column reactors

Step 4: Phases 1. Dene the primary and secondary phases. Dene Phases... 2. Select phase-1 and click Set.... to open the Primary Phase panel.

(a) Change the phase name to water-liquid. (b) Select water-liquid from the Phase Material drop-down list. (c) Click OK to close the Primary Phase panel.

3. Select phase-2 and click Set.... in the Phases panel. (a) Select air from the Phase Material drop-down list. (b) Change the phase name to air. (c) Enter 0.003 for Diameter.

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(d) Click OK to close the Secondary Phase panel. 4. close the Phases panel. Step 5: Operating Conditions Dene Operating Conditions... 1. Enable Gravity. 2. Enter -9.81 m/s2 for Gravitational Acceleration in the Y direction. 3. Set the Reference Pressure Location in the Y direction to 1.5 m. 4. Set the operating density. (a) Enable Specied Operating Density. (b) Enter 1.225 kg/m3 for Operating Density. The operating density is set to the density of the lighter phase. This excludes the buildup of hydrostatic pressure within the lighter phase, improving the round-o accuracy for the momentum balance. 5. Click OK to close the Operating Conditions panel. Step 6: Boundary Conditions Dene Boundary Conditions... 1. Set the boundary conditions for velocity-inlet-5. (a) Select water-liquid from the Phase drop-down list and click Set... to open the Velocity Inlet panel. i. Retain the default settings and click OK to close the Velocity Inlet panel. (b) Select air from the Phase drop-down list and click Set... to open the Velocity Inlet panel. i. Enter 0.66e-3 m/s for Velocity Magnitude. ii. Click the Multiphase tab and enter 1 for Volume Fraction. iii. Click OK to close the Velocity Inlet panel. 2. Set the boundary conditions for pressure-outlet-4. (a) Select water-liquid from the Phase drop-down list and click Set... to open the Pressure Outlet panel. i. Retain the default settings and click OK to close the Pressure Outlet panel. (b) Select air from the Phase drop-down list and click Set... to open the Pressure Outlet panel. i. Retain the default settings for air and click OK to close the Pressure Outlet panel. 3. Close the Boundary Conditions panel.

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Step 7: Solution 1. Set the solution control parameters. Solve Controls Solution... (a) Enter 0.5, 0.2, and 0.8 for Pressure, Momentum, and Volume Fraction respectively in the Under-Relaxation Factors group box. Note: Since this is a laminar ow, a turbulence model has not been activated. If the ow is turbulent, select the appropriate k-epsilon turbulence model and enter 0.8 for turbulence under-relaxation parameters for Kinetic Energy and Turbulent Dissipation Rate. (b) Select Body Force Weighted from the Pressure drop-down list and QUICK from the Momentum and Volume Fraction drop-down lists. (c) Select PISO from the Pressure-Velocity Coupling drop-down list. (d) Click OK to close the Solution Controls panel. 2. Enable the plotting of residuals during the calculation. Solve Monitors Residual... (a) Enable Plot from the Options list. (b) Set the Convergence Criterion for vf-air to 1e-5. 3. Initialize the ow eld. Solve Initialize Initialize... 4. Create an animation sequence for the velocity vector and volume fraction display. Solve Animate Dene...

(a) Increase the number of Animation Sequences to 2.

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(b) Enter vof for the rst animation and vel-vectors for the second. (c) Enter 200 for Every for vof and vel-vectors. (d) Select Time Step from the When drop-down list for vof and vel-vectors. (e) Click the Dene... button for vof to open the Animation Sequence panel.

i. Increase the Window number to 1 and click Set. ii. Select Contours from the Display Type list to open the Contours panel. A. Select Phases... and Volume fraction from the Contours of drop-down lists. B. Select water-liquid from the Phase drop-down list. C. Enable Filled, disable Auto Range and Clip to Range from the Options list. D. Set the range from 0.996 for Min to 1 for Max and click Display. E. Close the Contours panel. iii. Click OK to close the Animation Sequence panel. (f) Click the Dene... button for vel-vectors to open the Animation Sequence panel. i. Increase the Window number to 2 and click the Set button. ii. Select Vectors from the Display Type list to open the Vectors panel. A. Select Velocity from the Vectors of drop-down list and mixture from the Phase drop-down list. B. Select Velocity... and Velocity Magnitude from the Color by drop-down list. C. Disable Auto Range and Clip to Range from the Options list. D. Set the range from 2.26e-4 to 1.32e-1 and click Display. E. Close the Vectors panel.

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iii. Click OK to close the Animation Sequence panel. The active checkbox for vof and vel-vectors will be enabled in the Solution Animation panel. iv. Click OK to close the Solution Animation panel. (g) Enable the Autosave option. File Write Autosave... i. Set the Autosave Data File Frequency to 200. ii. Click OK to close the Autosave Case/Data panel. 5. Save the case le (becker.cas). File Write Case... 6. Set the time stepping parameters. Solve Iterate... (a) Set Time Step Size to 0.01. (b) Set the Number of Time Steps to 5000. (c) Click Iterate. 7. Save the data le (becker.dat). File Write Data... Step 8: Postprocessing 1. Play back the animations of the volume fraction and velocity vectors. Solve Animate Playback...

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(a) Select vof from the Sequences selection list and click the

button. button.

(b) Select vel-vectors from the Sequences selection list and click the 2. Display lled contours of volume fraction of water (Figure 3). Display Contours...

(a) Enable Filled, disable Auto Range and Clip to Range from the Options list. (b) Select Phases... and Volume fraction from the Contours of drop-down list. (c) Enter 0.996 for Min and 1 for Max. (d) Select water-liquid from the Phase drop down list and click Display.

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Figure 3: Contours of Volume Fraction of Water (e) Close the Contours panel. 3. Display velocity vectors (Figure 4). Display Vectors... (a) Select Velocity from the Vectors of drop-down list and mixture from the Phases drop-down list. (b) Select Velocity... and Velocity Magnitude from the Color by drop-down list. (c) Disable Auto Range and Clip to Range from the Options list. (d) Set the range from 2.26e-4 for Min to 1.32e-1 for Max respectively and click Display.

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Figure 4: Velocity Vectors for the Bubble Column (e) Close the Vectors panel.

Summary
In this tutorial, an unsteady bubble column was set up and solved using the Mixture Multiphase model in FLUENT. For more information about the applicability of the dierent multiphase models, refer to the FLUENT 6.3 Users Guide.

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