Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 6359–6365

www.elsevier.com/locate/ces

Numerical simulation of multiphase #ow in bubble column reactors.

In#uence of bubble coalescence and break-up
E. Olmos, C. Gentric ∗ , Ch. Vial, G. Wild, N. Midoux
Laboratoire des Sciences du Genie Chimique, 1, rue Grandville BP451, 54001 Nancy Cedex, France

Abstract
Population balance equations have been combined to a classical hydrodynamic Euler=Euler simulation to investigate the operation
of a cylindrical bubble column. The MUSIG (mutiple-size-group) model implemented in the CFX 4.3 commercial software has
been used. Hydrodynamic experimental variables, i.e. local axial liquid velocity and local gas hold-up, have been compared to the
corresponding calculated values, showing a quite good agreement, except for the gas hold-up when the column is no more operating
in the homogeneous regime. Bubble sizes have been investigated, showing that two domains of super;cial gas velocities can be
distinguished. In the ;rst domain, coalescence occurs predominantly, Sauter diameter increases with the super;cial gas velocity,
bubble size distribution is narrow and Sauter diameter is continuously evolving along the column axis. In the second domain,
break-up becomes more intensive and compensates coalescence, bubble size distribution becomes wider, since more small bubbles
are formed, an equilibrium Sauter diameter appears when the super;cial gas velocity increases. Furthermore an equilibrium Sauter
diameter appears along the column axis, and it can be noticed that this phenomenon appears lower in the column when the gas #ow
rate is increased. In these two domains the characteristics of the bubbles are typical of those of the homogeneous and transition
regimes. ? 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Bubble column; Euler–Euler; Simulation; Gas–liquid #ow; Coalescence; Break-up; CFD

1. Introduction
1.1. Bubble columns hydrodynamics
Bubble column reactors are widely used in bio- and
petro-chemical industries. They are known as excellent
reactors for processes which require large interfacial area
for gas–liquid mass transfer and e@cient mixing for react-
ing species. A better knowledge of the local hydrodynam-
ics to increase the predictability of the reactor design and
to improve the e@ciency of the processes appears now
necessary. The use of the computational #uid dynamics
(CFD) should be able to improve this knowledge, by pro-
viding a complete description of the local hydrodynamics
if an adequate model is used. However, the complex inter-
actions between the gas and the liquid phases cause many
modelling problems still to be solved. Numerous stud-
ies (Shah, Kelkar, Godbole, & Deckwer, 1982; Camarasa
et al., 1999) have shown that strong interactions exist
between the operating conditions, the physico-chemical
∗ Corresponding author.
properties of the liquid phase, the gas sparger, the bub-
ble properties (size and shape) and the hydrodynamics.
The type of #ow regime and consequently the nature of
the dispersion in#uences particularly the bubble-bed be-
haviour.
Three regimes (Zahradnik et al., 1997) generally occur
in bubble columns. The homogeneous regime is obtained
at low gas super;cial velocities. Its bubble size distribu-
tion is monomodal, narrow and is only in#uenced by the
type of gas sparger used since coalescence-break-up phe-
nomena can be neglected. Gas hold-up and bubble diam-
eter pro;les are uniform. As super;cial gas velocity in-
creases, the heterogeneous regime is obtained, in which
coalescence and break-up occur. Large bubbles with sizes
depending on the column diameter are formed. Usually,
an intermediate region, called the transition regime, ex-
ists between these two regimes.
The study of these regimes shows that the major phe-
nomenon that governs the transition between the homo-
geneous and the heterogeneous regimes is the occurrence
of the large bubbles described previously. Therefore it
clearly appears that the description of the #ow regimes

0009-2509/01/$ - see front matter ? 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
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6360 E. Olmos et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 6359–6365

is improved when bubble coalescence and break-up are related to #ow regimes. Bubble size distributions obtained
accounted for in the model. by the model are compared to experimental distributions
Detailed investigations on break-up and coalescence obtained by photography.
mechanisms in air-sparged reactors have been proposed
(Prince & Blanch, 1990; Lee, Erickson, & Glasgow,
1987) but they were limited to the development of mod-
2. Flow equations
els for the prediction of bubble coalescence and break-up
frequencies. More recently, coalescence and break-up
2.1. Bubble coalescence and break-up model
have been studied numerically in bubbly #ows by solv-
ing two-group (a spherical=distorted bubble group and a
The implementation of population balance equations
cap=slug bubble group) interfacial area transport equa-
into CFX 4.3 developed by Lo (1996) is used to take into
tions (Hibiki & Ishii, 2000), or an additional balance
account the non-uniform bubble size distribution. Bub-
equation for the average bubble volume derived from a
bles from 1 to 10 mm diameter equally divided into 10
population balance in bubble columns (Millies & Mewes,
classes are considered (see Table 1). Instead of consid-
1999) and in vertical #ows (Wu, Kim, Ishii, & Beus,
ering 11 diJerent complete phases, each bubble class is
1998).
assumed to move at the same mean algebraic velocity for
signi;cant reduction of computing time. A system of 11
coupled equations (1 momentum and 10 continuity equa-
1.2. Objectives
tions) is therefore to be solved for the gas phase coupled
to 1 momentum and 1 continuity equations for the liquid
For the past few years, two main approaches have
phase.
been used for numerical investigations of bubbly #ows.
The break-up model is taken from Luo and
The ;rst one is the Euler–Euler approach considering
Svendsen (1996) and assumes isotropic turbulence. The
the two phases as two continuous media. Its low com-
coalescence model from Prince and Blanch (1990) is
putational load has allowed to develop many studies
used. It describes the coalescence process as occurring in
(Sokolichin & Eigenberger, 1994; Van den Akker, 1998;
three steps: a ;rst step where the bubbles collide and trap
Pan, Dudukovic, & Chang, 2000). The second one is
a layer of liquid between them, a second step where this
the Eulerian–Lagrangian discrete bubble model. This
liquid layer drains until it reaches a critical thickness, and
approach is more realistic but the track of a su@cient
a last step during which this liquid ;lm disappears and the
number of particles, required for accurate modelling,
bubbles coalesce. The collisions between bubbles may be
demands high computational memory and speed (Lapin
caused by turbulence, buoyancy or laminar shear. Only
& LIubbert, 1994; Delnoij, Lammers, Kuipers, & van
the ;rst cause of collision (turbulence) is considered in
Swaaij, 1997).
the present model. Indeed collisions caused by buoyancy
All these studies based on CFD are most of time limited
cannot be taken into account as all the bubbles from each
to the homogeneous regime because they consider only
class move at the same speed. Moreover, calculations
one bubble size. As a matter of fact, in the heterogeneous
showed that laminar shear collisions are negligible in the
regime, the bubble size distribution becomes bimodal
range of super;cial gas velocities considered.
with the apparition of large bubbles (De Swart, van Vliet,
The general form of the population balance equation is
& Krishna, 1996) inducing di@culties to describe the
#ow correctly. For this purpose, Krishna, Urseanu, van @ni
Baten, and Ellenberger (1999) considered a three-phase +  · (ug ni ) = PB + PC − DB − DC ; (1)
@t
continuum (liquid, small and large bubbles phases) and
applied two distinct interphase momentum terms on the PB ; PC ; DB ; DC are, respectively, the production rates due
small and on the large bubbles. to break-up and coalescence and the death rate to break-up
The aim of this work is to combine a coalescence and and coalescence of bubbles of diameter di . To ;t our data,
break-up model with a complete #ow numerical simula- coalescence and break-up rates are calibrated by a factor
tion. To achieve this objective, the Euler–Euler two-#uid of 0.075.
approach is used. The #ow equations are solved using The number density of the ith class ni is then related
a ;nite volume technique proposed by the commercial to the gas hold-up by
package CFXTM 4.3 from AEA Technology. Hydrody-
namic variables such as liquid velocity, global and local ni vi = g fi : (2)
gas hold-up are calculated and compared to experimen-
tal data. The pro;le of the mean bubble diameter in the 2.2. Flow equations
column and its variation with the super;cial gas veloc-
ity are studied and enable us to emphasize the in#uence Euler=Euler volume-averaged continuity and momen-
of the primary gas distribution. This evolution is also tum transport equations are written for each phase as
 E. Olmos et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 6359–6365 6361

Table 1
Diameter of each bubble class
Class no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Central class diameter di (mm) 1.58 2.43 3.41 4.2 5.09 5.98 6.88 7.78 8.67 9.57

follows: turbulent kinetic energy and of the gradient of the volume

fraction of liquid:
@
(l l ) +  · (l l ul ) = 0 for the liquid phase; (3) t t t
@t Flg = − CTD l k  l and Fgl = − Flg (7)

@(g g fi ) with the recommended value CTD = 0:1.

+  · (g ug g fi ) = Si for the gas phase; Consequently the interphase momentum exchange
@t
D t
term is given by: Flg = Flg + Flg .
(4)
@
(k k uk ) +  · (k k uk uk )
@t 3. Experimental set-up
2
= − k p + k k g + Fkm + k k  u (k; m = l; g):
3.1. Experimental apparatus
(5)
The experimental set-up is a 10 cm diameter bubble
In Eq. (4) Si is a source term due to coalescence and ◦
column ;lled with tap water (H = 1:35 m, T = 20 C). No
break-up. The right term of Eq. (5) describes all the forces mass and no heat transfer are considered. The gas phase
acting on phase k in each control volume: the pressure (air) is introduced at the bottom of the column through
gradient, gravity, the interphase momentum exchange be- two possible spargers: either a porous plate (5 mm thick,
tween phase k and phase m Fkm and the viscous stress 10 –16 m mean pore diameter) or a multiple-ori;ce
term. Lift and added mass forces are neglected. The in- nozzle (62 1 mm circular holes uniformly spaced). The
terphase momentum transfer between gas and liquid due super;cial gas velocity varies from 0.5 to 9:6 cm s−1
to drag force is given by allowing homogeneous and transition regimes to be
3 1 investigated. Axial liquid velocity has been measured
D
Flg = CD g l |ul − ug |(ul − ug ) by laser Doppler velocimetry, the local gas hold-up by
4 dS
optical probes and the bubble size distributions using
and photography . All measurements were done at the middle
height of the column. Further details are given in Vial,
D D
Flg = − Fgl : (6) LainNe, Poncin, Midoux, and Wild (2001).

The drag coe@cient is chosen constant to 0.8 which cor-

responds to the ellipsoidal regime.
2.3. Turbulence model
For the continuous liquid phase, a k– model is ap-
plied with its standard constants: C1 = 1:44, C2 = 1:92,
C = 0:09; k = 1,  = 1:3. No turbulence model is ap-
plied on the dispersed phase but the in#uence of the dis-
persed phase on the turbulence of the liquid phase is
taken into account with Sato’s additional term (Sato &
Sekoguchi, 1975) with its constant chosen to 0.6 as best
;t of our data.
3.2. Numerical methods
Axial symmetry and steady state are assumed. The
grid is rectangular, structured and uniform, the calcula-
tion cells are 5 × 5 mm2 large. The population balance
equations are solved every 20 hydrodynamic equations in
order to reduce the computational time and only bubbles
of the 5th class (5:1 mm) enter the column (estimated
bubble size formed at the sparger). The convergence is
obtained between approximately 5000 and 10000 itera-
tions which correspond to 3–6 h of calculation on a com-
puter provided with a Pentium III 1 GHz processor.

2.4. Additional force 4. Hydrodynamics: experiments vs. calculations

t
An additional interphase force Flg taking into account First, predicted and experimental hydrodynamics are
the turbulence induced dispersion (Kurul & Podowski, compared. It can be observed in Fig. 1 that the agree-
1990) is considered. This force is a function of the ment between the experimental and the calculated liquid
6362 E. Olmos et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 6359–6365
Fig. 1. Comparison between calculated and experimental (obtained
with the multiple ori;ce nozzle) radial liquid velocity pro;les
(h=H = 0:5 m).
Fig. 2. Comparison between calculated and experimental local gas
hold-up pro;les (h=H = 0:5 m).
velocities is quite good in tendency. The model without
coalescence gives similar results (data not shown).
The local gas hold-up measured and calculated at mid
column are shown in Fig. 2: radially uniform gas hold-up
is obtained at low gas velocities corresponding to the ho-
mogeneous regime. For higher gas velocities, these pro-
;les become parabolic which is characteristic of the tran-
sition and the heterogeneous regimes.
The in#uence of the super;cial gas velocity on the
global gas hold-up (Fig. 3) shows that the numerical
method allows a good prediction of the experimental val-
ues as long as the super;cial gas velocity is low to mod-
erate (UG ¡ 7 cm s−1 ). Beyond this critical velocity, the
transition regime is well established and the stagnation of
g  is not predicted neither with nor without the imple-
mented coalescence and break-up model. When the tran-
sition regime is established, the calculations overestimate
the experimental values. This may be due to the choice of
the bubble size distribution. Indeed, the transition and the
Fig. 3. Comparison between calculated and experimental global gas
hold-up. In#uence of coalescence and break-up.
Fig. 4. Evolution of the calculated global Sauter diameter with Ug .
heterogeneous regimes are characterised by large bubbles
(d ¿ 20 mm) with high velocities. That entails a plateau
in the global gas hold-up. The issue probably originates
in the choice of the maximum diameter (10 mm) con-
sidered for the modelling. This narrow distribution only
leads to global Sauter mean diameters of 7 mm (see
Fig. 4) at these super;cial gas velocities, so bubbles are
still in the theoretical domain of constant terminal veloc-
ity and the large bubbles with high velocities appearing
in the transition regime are not taken in account. These
very large diameters have not been considered in order
to ;nd a compromise between calculation time and a rel-
ative ;ne description of bubble size distribution.
5. Bubble size distributions: experiments vs.
calculations
To get a better understanding of the gas–liquid #ow
structure, the photographic technique has been used and
its results compared with the numerical simulation re-
sults. Two main simulated evolutions of variables are in-
vestigated. They consist in the evolution of the global
 E. Olmos et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 6359–6365
Fig. 5. Comparison between the experimental and calculated evolu-
tions of global mean diameter with Ug .
number mean diameter d and the global Sauter mean
diameter d
S . These two diameters
can be expressed as:
dncells = cells d and dS ncells = cells dS where ncells
is the number of
grid cells,

d is the local number aver-
age diameter d i fi =vi =
i (fi =vi )di and ds is the local
Sauter diameter 1=dS = fi =di . They, respectively, in-
form us on the coalescence and breakage frequencies and
on the in#uence of size distribution on the global hydro-
dynamics.
The evolution of d with the super;cial gas veloc-
ity is compared to the experimental values (see Fig. 5)
and shows a good prediction of the experimental data.
Fig. 4 shows the evolution of dS  with the super;cial gas
velocity. We can notice that two distinct super;cial gas
velocity domains can be made out by the calculations :
a ;rst sensible increase of the Sauter diameter from 5 to
6:5 mm, and a second one where this diameter tends to a
constant value. These domains (A, B) can be related to
the homogeneous and transition #ow regimes as follows.
5.1. Domain A
In domain A (Ug ¡ 4:8 cm s−1 ), the Sauter diameter
increases quickly from 5 to 6:5 mm. The Sauter diameter
distribution (see Fig. 6) shows that the entering bubbles
(5th class) disappear by coalescence to form essentially
larger bubbles. This observation is con;rmed by the 5th
class volume fraction pro;le along the column axis (see
Fig. 7). The observed evolution of the Sauter mean di-
ameter with Ug can be linked to the evolution of d
(Fig. 5). It shows that ;rstly, i.e. for very low super;cial
velocities (Ug ¡ 1:5 cm s−1 ), the coalescence phenom-
ena is slightly predominant. And then, as Ug increases to
4:7 cm s−1 , break-up becomes more intensive since d
is decreasing. The consequence of the apparition of this
break-up phenomenon is the in#ection of dS  increase.
Furthermore, in domain A, the Sauter diameter distri-
butions evolve quickly from an initial monomodal and
6363
Fig. 6. Sauter diameter global distribution.
Fig. 7. Axial pro;les of volume fraction of the 5th class bubbles
(r=R = 0).
narrow distribution centred on the 5th class to a quite
larger distribution centred on the 6th class (see Fig. 6).
These distributions are composed essentially by the rest
of the bubbles of the 5th class that have not disappeared
and by the 6th and 7th formed by coalescence. Moreover,
we can notice that smaller bubbles (di ¡5 mm) do not
appear and break-up phenomena observed earlier may be
negligible when Sauter diameters are considered in this
range of super;cial gas velocities.
In addition to this, it can be noticed that no equilibrium
Sauter diameter is reached before the top of the column in
this domain of super;cial gas velocities (see Fig. 8) since
dS increases continuously. Thus, the sparger governs es-
sentially the #ow in the column. This can be explained by
coalescence and break-up kinetics. Indeed, for this low
super;cial gas velocities, the input energy coming from
the isothermal gas expansion is low. Consequently, coa-
lescence and break-up kinetics is slow and does not allow
to reach an equilibrium state before the top of the column.
These three observations (narrow distributions, in-
crease of the global Sauter diameter, eJect of the sparger)
let us think that the domain A can be linked to the ho-
mogeneous #ow regime for which these characteristics
are known similar.
6364 E. Olmos et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 6359–6365
Fig. 8. Evolution of the axial pro;le of dS with Ug .
5.2. Domain B
In domain B (Ug ¿ 4:7 cm s−1 ), dS  reaches a
quasi-constant value of approximately 6:5 mm. This
equilibrium diameter can be interpreted by the fact that
break-up becomes non-negligible and compensates coa-
lescence eJects. This trend is well con;rmed by Fig. 5
showing that d reaches a stable value around 3:5 mm,
which demonstrates the equality of bubble coalescence
and break-up frequencies. The evolution to this equilib-
rium value observed numerically is characteristic of the
transition and the heterogeneous regimes and has already
been observed experimentally by Camarasa et al. (1999)
and by Bhavaraju, Russel, and Blanch (1978).
Fig. 6 shows that less than 10% of the bubbles of the
entering class are still present in the column for these su-
per;cial gas velocities. They are essentially transformed
into larger bubbles (dS = 7–7:5 mm) and smaller bubbles
(dS = 3:5–4:5 mm). The sensible point is that the largest
bubbles (dS ≈ 7:2 mm) are almost no more aJected by
coalescence while Sauter diameter distribution widens
toward the small bubbles (dS ≈ 3–4 mm). A stable
diameter distribution seems to appear for the highest su-
per;cial gas velocities studied. No bimodal distributions
are highlighted but our calculations show a clear wide
distribution from the largest bubbles which essentially
determine the hydrodynamics of the reactor to small
ones formed by break-up but which in#uence slightly
this hydrodynamics.
This equilibrium state can be observed along the col-
umn axis too (see Fig. 8). Indeed, a stable Sauter diame-
ter exists in the column, this equilibrium state is obtained
lower in the column when the super;cial gas velocities
increases. Thus, the distributor eJects on the bubbles
properties can be assumed negligible beyond a su@cient
height of liquid. In this case, this equilibrium state is pos-
sible since the high input energy allows a quick kinetics
of coalescence and break-up.
The experimental transition velocities are observed at 3
and 4 cm s−1 for the porous plate and the multiple-ori;ce
nozzle spargers respectively (Camarasa et al., 1999). Our
numerical transition super;cial velocity (4:7 cm s−1 ) is
therefore in good agreement with these experimental
values.
All these observations show that the model simulates
the bubbles properties of the transition regime (predomi-
nance of break-up, wide size distributions) satisfactorily.
By still increasing Ug , which has not been considered
in the present study, the heterogeneous regime is about
to appear. At the same time, the bubble size distribution
should be stable and the gas distributor eJects negligible,
which indeed already occurs for our highest super;cial
gas velocities.
6. Summary and conclusion
Euler–Euler simulations of gas–liquid #ows in a bub-
ble column have been coupled with a study of population
balance. Bubbles have been distributed into 10 diameter
classes, and for each of them coalescence and break-up
phenomena have been taken into account. Calculated bub-
ble size distributions, liquid velocity and gas hold-up
pro;les have been compared with experimental results
obtained by photography, laser Doppler velocimetry and
optical probes. This comparison has shown that, as long as
the homogeneous regime exists, the hydrodynamic vari-
ables are still in good agreement with the experimental
data but an underestimation of the global gas hold-up ap-
pears when the transition regime begins. The evolution
of dS  reveals two distinct domains in which some bub-
ble properties (size and distribution) have been linked
to those encountered in the homogeneous and transition
regimes. In the ;rst domain, the in#uence of the sparger
on the #ow is predominant. In the second one, break-up
and wider size distributions prevail. These size distribu-
tions evolve till an equilibrium which characterises the
bubble properties in the heterogeneous regime.
This study has shown the in#uence of hydrodynamics
on bubble size distribution and has allowed a charac-
terisation of the #ow regimes as well as of the dis-
tributor regimes as far as bubble sizes are concerned.
Nevertheless, as soon as the #ow transition regime
begins, all the other #ow variables are less precisely
estimated. Coalescence and break-up frequencies are
essentially determined by the turbulent energy dissipa-
tion rate and the bubble diameter. Moreover the total
dissipation rate is only related to the energy input due
to the isotherm gas expansion which only depends on
the super;cial gas velocity. Thus, it remains coher-
ent to obtain a realistic size distribution without the
expected global hydrodynamics. The in#uence of the
bubble size on the reactor hydrodynamics should be
obtained with a broader and more precise bubble di-
ameter distribution containing some very large bubbles
with signi;cantly larger velocities and speci;c drag
 E. Olmos et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 6359–6365 6365

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