Tutorial: Gas Sparging System

Introduction
The purpose of this tutorial is to model a CD-6/HE-3 gas sparging system as per the design recommended in (Bakker A, Smith J.M. and Myers K.J, 1994). This is a standard conguration used in the biotechnology and processing industries for gas-liquid mixing, for example in large scale fermenters. This is done using the Eulerian multiphase model of ANSYS FLUENT, coupled with MRF functionality. This tutorial demonstrates how to do the following: Use the Eulerian multiphase model. Use the multiple reference frame (MRF) functionality to model a gas sparging system. Solve the case using appropriate solver settings. Postprocess the resulting data.

Prerequisites
This tutorial is written with the assumption that you have completed Tutorial 1 from ANSYS FLUENT 14.0 Tutorial Guide, and that you are familiar with the ANSYS FLUENT navigation pane and menu structure. Some steps in the setup and solution procedure will not be shown explicitly. In this tutorial, you will use Eulerian multiphase model coupled with MRF functionality. For more details about MRF, see Section 10.3.1, The Multiple Reference Frame Model in ANSYS FLUENT 14.0 Users Guide.

Problem Description
The problem considered in this tutorial is shown in Figure 1. A tank, with 2 m diameter, 2.8 m height, and an ASME bottom depth of 0.3394 m, is lled with water upto a level of 2.4 m. The tank consists of four baes, a central shaft with two impellers (CD-6 and HE-3), and a ring sparger.

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Figure 1: Schematic Figure

Strategy
The details of these components are given below: 1. Shaft: Shaft diameter = 0.045 m Distance o bottom = 0.6 m Direction of rotation: clockwise seen from top Speed = 84 rpm 2. Baes: Number of baes = 4 Bae Width = 0.1667 m Distance o wall = 0.0278 m Distance o bottom = 0.0833 m 3. Impeller 1: Style: CD-6 (Smith Turbine) Number of blades = 6 2

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Blade diameter = 0.8 m Disc diameter = 0.6 m Blade height = 0.16 m Blade length = 0.2 m Position of the blades = 180 degree arcs and concave face forward Distance o bottom = 0.6 m Blade/disc thickness 0.005 m 4. Impeller 2: Style: HE-3 down pumping Number of blades = 3 Diameter = 1.04 m Blade width = 0.1664 m Blade angle at hub = 30 degrees 5. Ring Sparger: Diameter = 0.56 m Distance o bottom = 0.44 m Gas ow rate = 0.1 m3 /s The objective is to maximize the contact between gas and liquid. The impellers pump the liquid in the downward and radial directions, which then interacts with the baes and tank walls to develop a complex ow pattern. The liquid ow pattern is characterized by recirculation vortices between the impellers and the baes. When the gas is injected through the sparger, the gas bubbles come in contact with the liquid and are carried by the complex ow pattern. Due to the bouyancy forces, the bubbles rise to the top and the gas escapes from the outlet. Hence the gas holdup, which is the amount of gas that stays in the vessel at steady state is an important indicator of the ecacy of the reactor. The goal of CFD modeling is to determine the ow patterns and their eect on the gasliquid mixing and gas holdup. The impellers and the ring sparger are modeled explicitly. The impellers can be modeled using the MRF technique. This tutorial demonstrates how this method can be used.

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Setup and Solution Preparation

1. Copy the mesh le (sparger.msh.gz) to your working folder. 2. Use FLUENT Launcher to start the 3D version of ANSYS FLUENT. For more information about FLUENT Launcher see Section 1.1.2, Starting ANSYS FLUENT Using FLUENT Launcher in ANSYS FLUENT 14.0 Users Guide. The Display Options are enabled by default. Therefore, after you read in the mesh, it will be displayed in the embedded graphics window. 3. Enable Double-Precision in the Options list. Step 1: Mesh 1. Read the mesh le (sparger.msh.gz). File Read Mesh... As the mesh le is read, ANSYS FLUENT will report the progress in the console. Step 2: General Settings 1. Retain the default solver settings. General 2. Check the mesh. General Check ANSYS FLUENT will perform various checks on the mesh and will report the progress in the console. Make sure the minimum volume reported is a positive number. 3. Display the mesh. General Display... (a) Disable Faces and enable Edges from the Options list. (b) Select All from the Edge Type list. (c) Select all the surfaces from the Surfaces list. (d) Click Display (see Figure 2).

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Figure 2: Mesh Display

4. Dene the mesh interfaces. Mesh Interfaces Since the mesh is non-conformal, you have to set up the mesh interfaces. (a) Dene mesh interface, cd-6. i. Enter cd-6 for Mesh Interface. ii. Select int-cd-6-inner from the Interface Zone 1 list, and int-cd-6-outer from the Interface Zone 2 list. iii. Click Create. (b) Dene the mesh interface, he-3. i. Enter he-3 for Mesh Interface. ii. Select int-he-3-inner from the Interface Zone 1 list, and int-he-3-outer from the Interface Zone 2 list. iii. Click Create and close Create/Edit Mesh Interfaces dialog box. 5. Enable Gravity. General 6. Enter -9.81 m/s2 for X in the Gravitational Acceleration group box. Step 3: Models 1. Select the Eulerian multiphase model. Models Multiphase Edit... 5

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2. Select the standard k-epsilon viscous model. Models Step 4: Materials Materials Fluid Create/Edit... Viscous Edit...

1. Retain the properties of air. 2. Copy water-liquid from the ANSYS FLUENT database and retain its default properties. 3. Click Change/Create and close the Create/Edit Materials dialog box. Step 5: Phases 1. Dene the primary (water) phase. Phases phase-1-Primary Phase Edit...

(a) Enter water for Name. (b) Select water-liquid from the Phase Material drop-down list. (c) Click OK to close the Primary Phase dialog box. 2. Dene the secondary (air) phase. Phases phase-2-Secondary Phase Edit...

(a) Enter air for Name. (b) Select air from the Phase Material drop-down list. (c) Enter 0.002 m for Diameter. (d) Click OK to close the Secondary Phase dialog box. Step 6: Cell Zone Conditions 1. For uid.cd-6 and uid.he-3, select Mixture from the Phase drop-down list and click Edit.... Cell Zone Conditions (a) Enter 1, 0, and 0 for X, Y, and Z respectively in the Rotation-Axis Direction group box. (b) Swtich on Frame Motion in the Cell zone condition panel. (c) New input parameters appears in Tab Reference Frame (d) Enter -84 rpm for Speed. (e) Click OK to close the Fluid dialog box.

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2. For uid.tank, select mixture from the Phase drop-down list and click Edit.... Cell Zone Conditions uid.tank

(a) Make sure that Frame Motion option is unchecked. (b) Click OK to close the Fluid dialog box. Step 7: Boundary Conditions 1. For baes, sparger, and tank, ensure that wall is selected from the Type drop-down list. 2. For int-cd-6-inner, int-cd-6-outer, int-he-3-inner, and int-he-3-outer, ensure that interface is selected from the Type drop-down list. 3. Set the boundary conditions for tank.top. Boundary Conditions tank.top

(a) Select air from the Phase drop-down list and click Edit.... i. Click Multiphase tab and enter 1 for Backow Volume Fraction. ii. Click OK to close the Pressure Outlet dialog box. (b) Select mixture from the Phase drop-down list and click Edit.... i. Select Intensity and Hydraulic diameter from the Specication Method dropdown list in the Turbulence group box. ii. Enter 5% for Backow Turbulent Intensity and 2 for Hydraulic Diameter. iii. Click OK to close the Pressure Outlet dialog box. 4. For cd-6-blade, cd-6-disk, he-3-blade, shaft.cd-6, and shaft.he-3, select mixture from the Phase drop-down list and click Edit.... (a) Select Moving Wall from the Wall Motion list. (b) Select Relative to Adjacent Cell Zone and Rotational from the Motion group box. (c) Enter 0 rpm for Speed. (d) Enter 1, 0, and 0 for X, Y, and Z respectively in the Rotation-Axis Direction group box. (e) Click OK to close the Wall dialog box. 5. Set the boundary conditions for shaft.absolute. Boundary Conditions shaft.absolute Edit...

(a) Select Moving Wall from the Wall Motion list. (b) Select Relative to Adjacent Cell Zone and Rotational from the Motion group box. (c) Enter -84 rpm for Speed. (d) Enter 1, 0, and 0 for X, Y, and Z respectively in the Rotation-Axis Direction group box. 7

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(e) Click OK to close the Wall dialog box. 6. For sparger-inlet, select wall from the Type list and retain the default boundary conditions. Initially sparger-inlet is dened as wall to solve a single phase ow eld before enabling multiphase (volume fraction equation). Step 8: Solution 1. Set the solution parameters. Solution Methods (a) Select Green-Gauss Node Based from the Gradient drop-down list. (b) Select First Order Upwind from the Momentum, Volume Fraction, Turbulent Kinetic Energy, and Turbulent Dissipation Rate drop-down lists. The problem is solved in two stages: The initial part of the solution is obtained for a single phase ow eld with steady ow. The later part of the solution is obtained for an unsteady ow, using MRF and solving the volume fraction equation. Solution 1: Single Phase Flow Field 1. Initialize the solution. Solution Initialization 2. Mark the region for patching. Adapt Region... Adapt and create a register to patch air-volume-fraction of 1 near the top of the tank. Since liquid level is specied as 2.4 m, the rest of the tank above this will be patched with gas fraction of 1. (a) Enter (2.4, 2.823382) for (X Min, X Max). (b) Enter (-10, 10) for (Y Min,Y Max). (c) Enter (-10, 10) for (Z Min, Z Max). (d) Click Mark and close the Region Adaption dialog box. 3. Patch an initial liquid level in the tank. Solution Initialization Patch... (a) Select air from the Phase drop-down list. (b) Select Volume Fraction from the Variable list.

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(c) Enter 1 for the Value. (d) Select hexahedron-r0 from the Registers to Patch list. (e) Click Patch and close the Patch dialog box. 4. Deselect Volume Fraction from the Equations list. Solution Controls Equations... 5. Start the calculation for 2000 iterations. Run Calculation The solution converges in 1220 iterations approximately. However, the number of iterations required for convergence may be dierent for dierent machine congurations. 6. Save the case and data les (sparger-converged.cas/dat.gz). Solution 2: Unsteady State 1. Set the boundary condition for sparger-inlet. Boundary Conditions sparger-inlet

(a) Select velocity-inlet from the Type drop-down list. (b) Select air from the Phase drop-down list and click Edit.... i. Select Components from the Velocity Specication Method drop-down list. ii. Enter 4.93 m/s for X-Velocity and 0 m/s for Y-Velocity and Z-Velocity. iii. Click the Multiphase tab and enter 1 for Volume Fraction. iv. Click OK to close the Velocity Inlet dialog box. (c) Select mixture from the Phase drop-down list and click Edit.... i. Select Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter from the Specication Method dropdown list in the Turbulence group box. ii. Enter 5% for Turbulent Intensity and 0.56 m for Hydraulic Diameter. iii. Click OK to close the Velocity Inlet dialog box. (d) Change the solver to Transient. General Transient

(e) Modify the solution control parameters. i. Enter 0.3 for Pressure, 0.4 for Momentum, and 0.2 for Volume Fraction. Solution Controls ii. Select Volume Fraction from the Equations list. Solution Controls Equations... 2. Change the Absolute Criteria for all the residuals to 1e-06. Monitors Residuals Edit...

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3. Set the commands for animations. Calculation Activities (Execute Commands) Create/Edit...

(a) Dene the commands as shown in the Execute Commands dialog box. The commands command-1 and command-2 updates the contours and saves the .ti les. The command-3 writes the case and data les after every 100 time-steps by the name gas-sparger%t, where %t will be replaced by the time-step number. (b) Click OK to close the Execute Commands dialog box. (c) Click OK to close Execute Commands dialog box. 4. Create an iso-surface for displaying the contours of volume fraction of air to examine the ow eld. Surface Iso-Surface... (a) Select Mesh and Y-coordinate from the Surface of Constant drop-down lists. (b) Name the new surface as y-0 and click Create. (c) Close the Iso-Surface dialog box. 5. Set the display. Graphics and Animations Contours Set Up...

(a) Select Phases... and Volume fraction from the Contours of drop-down lists. (b) Select air from the Phase drop-down list. (c) Select y-0 from the Surfaces list. (d) Enable Draw Mesh from the Options list to open the Mesh Display dialog box. i. Disable Edges and enable Faces from the Options list. ii. Deselect tank and tank.top from the Surfaces list and click Display. iii. Close Mesh Display dialog box.

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(e) Click Display and close the Contours dialog box. (f) Set the view as shown in Figure ?? so that you can see the sparger inlets under the impeller clearly. 6. Set the hardcopy format as TIFF. File Save Picture 7. Start the calculation. Run Calculation (a) Enter 0.01 s for the Time Step Size. (b) Enter 400 for the Number of Time Steps. (c) Click Calculate. Later you can increase the time step size to 0.05 s for 120 time steps. This will cover a ow time of 10 seconds to reach a steady state.

Results
1. Examine the images at every ve time steps to see the air entry at the sparger inlet and air ow pattern. 2. After all the TIFF les have been saved, an external utility can be run to produce an animation in MPEG or AVI format. The key images showing the progressive contours of volume fraction of air are displayed in the following images (Figure 3Figure 7).

Figure 3: Contours of Volume Fraction of Air at 1.0 seconds

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Figure 4: Contours of Volume Fraction of Air at 2.0 seconds

Figure 5: Contours of Volume Fraction of Air at 4.0 seconds

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Figure 6: Contours of Volume Fraction of Air at 9.0 seconds

Figure 7: Contours of Volume Fraction of Air at 10.0 seconds

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3. Display the velocity vectors (see Figures 8 and 9). Graphics and Animations Vectors Set Up...

(a) Select Velocity from the Vectors of drop-down list. (b) Select air from the Phase drop-down list. (c) Select Velocity... and Velocity Magnitude from the Color by drop-down lists. (d) Select air from the Phase drop-down list. (e) Enter 80 for Scale and 2 for Skip. (f) Disable Auto Range, Enable Clip to Range, Auto Scale, and Draw Grid from the Options list. (g) Click Display and close the Mesh Display window. (h) Enter 0 m/s for Min and 3.0 m/s for Max. (i) Select y-0 from the Surfaces list. (j) Click Display and close the Vectors dialog box.

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Figure 8: Air Velocity Vectors at 4.0 seconds.

Figure 9: Air Velocity Vectors at 10.0 seconds.

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(k) Calculate the Gas Holdup. Gas holdup is dened as the ratio of volume of air in the reactor to the total volume. Reports Volume Integrals Set Up...

i. Select Volume from the Report Type list. ii. Select all the cell zones from the Cell Zones list. iii. Click Compute. ANSYS FLUENT reports the Total Volume as 8.347244 m3 . iv. For obtaining total volume of air, set the parameters as shown in the Volume Integrals dialog box.

The above calculation shows the volume fraction of air in reactor at 10.0 sec. Thus, Gasholdup = Volumefractionofair/TotalVolume = 1.3042672/8.347244 = 0.15625123 (1) (2) (3)

Summary
This tutorial demonstrated the application of MRF functionality to model a gas sparging system. Though MRF is a steady state formulation, this problem was solved as transient to enhance the convergence behavior. The results at the intermediate time-steps may not be as accurate as a sliding mesh calculation. The CD-6/HE-3 gas sparging system was successfully modeled using MRF functionality. 16

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Various postprocessing tools were used to analyze and examine the parameters of the gas sparging process. The MRF model can be used in mixing tanks if the impeller-bae interactions are relatively weak and large-scale transient eects are not present.

References
(Bakker A, Smith J.M. and Myers K.J, 1994), How to Disperse Gases in Liquids. Vol.101, No.12, p.98.

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