Three-dimensional simulations of air–water bubbly flows

Abstract

Interfacial area transport equation (IATE) is considered promising to evaluate dynamic changes of the interfacial area concentration in gas–liquid two-phase flows, which is of significance in characterizing the interfacial structure of the flows. Efforts were made by the authors in the past on the implementation of the IATE into computational fluid dynamics codes, such as Fluent. However, it remained unclear whether the IATE model coefficients derived from one-dimensional IATE model calibrations can be applied to three-dimensional simulations. The current study aimed to examine, primarily by investigating the lateral profiles of phase distributions, the applicability of the coefficients obtained from the one-dimensional IATE model calibration to a three-dimensional simulation of bubbly flow in a pipe. In addition, effects of the lift force on the lateral phase distributions were studied. A new set of the IATE model coefficients was suggested for a three-dimensional bubbly flow simulation. Good agreement was obtained with the updated coefficients between the predicted and measured flow parameters.