Bubbly flow with particle attachment and detachment – A multi-phase CFD study

The available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for multi-phase bubble column ignore the effects of attached particles on the dynamics of the bubbles. Bubbles become heavier with the attachment of solid particles which has significant impact on their buoyancy, and hence their flow dynamics. The present paper endeavours to simulate multi-phase slurry bubble column accounting for the effect of bubble–particle aggregate density on the flow dynamics in a multi-phase slurry bubble column. A CFD model was developed and validated against air–paraffin oil data at ambient conditions to understand the hydrodynamics of a three-phase slurry bubble column.