The Eulerian-Eulerian approach for reactor design: a case study

Counter-current two-phase flow is met in several industrial plants in the chemical, nuclear and oil industry fields. This paper presents recent experimental and numerical results obtained in a circular column of 240 mm diameter with two inner pipes. An upward flow of air and downward flow of water at ambient conditions is considered. Superficial air velocities up to 23 cm/s and superficial water velocities up to 11 cm/s are analyzed, corresponding to global void fractions up to 28.7%. Global void fraction data are obtained using the gas disengagement technique while local data are acquired from a double optical probe. A numerical model has been developed within the commercial code ANSYS Fluent Release 14.5.7. This part is divided into two phases. In the first phase, a literature benchmark is studied and different interfacial closures are compared. In the second phase, experimental facility is simulated. Numerical results are compared with experimental data for an air superficial velocity in the bubble column configuration. The relative influence of different interfacial interphase forces is investigated and suggestions for future simulations are given.