Abstract
This study investigated the effect of pressure on individual bubble drag for a contaminated polydisperse swarm. Bubble size distributions and individual bubble drag coefficients were experimentally determined at four different pressures (0.14, 0.46, 2.00, 4.00 MPa) to establish if there is a relationship between bubble size distribution and individual drag coefficient and quantify the effect of pressure on bubble drag. The analysis is limited to bubbles with diameters between 0.4 and 6 mm. Individual bubble drag coefficients were found to decrease with pressure at constant gas hold-up. This effect is attributed to changes in bubble size distribution driven by pressure. As pressure increased, the bubble size distribution shifted towards smaller sizes. Relatively speaking, these smaller bubbles induce marginal liquid perturbations and could potentially dampen turbulence from other sources, resulting in reduced drag. A new drag model has been proposed to improve CFD simulation of bubble columns at elevated pressures.
Published Version
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