Stability issues for gas-liquid flows in bubble columns

In the present work, gas-liquid flow dynamics in a bubble column are simulated with CFDLib using an Eulerian-Eulerian ensemble-averaging method in a two dimensional Cartesian system. The time-averaged gas holdup simulations are compared to experimental measurements of a cylindrical bubble column performed by Rampure et al. [1]. Numerical predictions are presented for the time-averaged gas holdup at various axial heights as a function of radial position. The effects of grid resolution, bubble pressure model, and drag coefficient models on the numerical predictions are examined. The bubble pressure model is reported to account for bubble stability, thus providing physical solutions. The objectives are to obtain grid-independent numerical solutions to resolve unphysical results observed in FLUENT with increasing grid resolutions [2], and to validate computational fluid dynamics simulations with experimental data to demonstrate the use of numerical simulations as a viable design tool for gas-liquid bubble column flows.