Understanding and modelling bubble-induced turbulence
Research Project, 2018
– 2021
The aim of this project is to forge a physical understanding of the complex flows and transport phenomena occurring in bubbly flows to then develop new turbulence models. Bubbly flows play a significant role in a wide range of industrial and geophysical processes: oil transport, chemical reac- tors, nuclear reactors, heat exchangers, atmosphere-ocean exchanges. Bubble columns offer numerous advantages in industrial applications such as good heat and mass transfer characteristics, absence of moving parts, low operating and maintenance cost. The current design of these devices is still based on global empirical correlations. Predicting the motion of bubbles and how the continuous phase is affected by the dispersed phase are still key problems in fluid mechanics. Experimental data are available only for the dilute regime since at higher gas fractions the system is opaque and classic laser-based techniques fail. We will employ a novel and original numerical approach to perform large scale-state of the art Direct numerical Simulations (DNS). The new insights developed in this project will be used to improve existing LES (Large Eddy Simulation) closures in the context of Eulerian-Eulerian two fluids models, used by academics and industry, and allow for more efficient design and operation of bubble column reactors.
Participants
Gaetano Sardina (contact)
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Fluid Dynamics
Srdjan Sasic
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Fluid Dynamics
Henrik Ström
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Fluid Dynamics
Funding
Swedish Research Council (VR)
Project ID: 2017-05031
Funding Chalmers participation during 2018–2021
Related Areas of Advance and Infrastructure
Production
Areas of Advance
Energy
Areas of Advance
Basic sciences
Roots
C3SE (Chalmers Centre for Computational Science and Engineering)
Infrastructure