Characteristics of a countercurrent reciprocating plate bubble column. I. Holdup, pressure drop and bubble diameter

AbstractThe hydrodynamics of countercurrent air/water flow in a 5 cm diameter reciprocating plate bubble column have been studied; the plates contained 14 mm diameter perforations and had a fractional open area of 0.57. The ranges of superficial velocities of air and water were respectively 0‐0.99 cm/s and 0‐3.95 cm/s. The stroke was in most cases 4.5 cm and the reciprocation frequency was in the range 0–5 Hz.The pressure drops were measured in the absence of reciprocation for single phase and two phase flow conditions. Pressure fluctuations and time‐averaged pressure drops were measured with plate reciprocation under single and two‐phase conditions. The results were described in terms of the simple quasi‐steady state model; the effective orifice coefficients of the perforations were within the range 0.4 to 0.97 depending on the reciprocation conditions.The Sauter mean diameters of the bubbles decreased with agitation; they were about twice the values predicted from an earlier correlation developed for liquid‐liquid systems. The gas holdups were also substantially greater than predicted from correlations based on liquid‐liquid systems. Both these effects were explained as due to the tendency for bubbles to cluster in the plate region.

Characteristics of a countercurrent reciprocating plate bubble column. I. Holdup, pressure drop and bubble diameter Journal Articles