cfd simulation of scale influence on the hydrodynamics of an internal loop airlift reactorcfd模拟的规模影响空运一个内部循环反应器的流体力学.pdfVIP

Engineering, 2012, 4, 668-674 /10.4236/eng.2012.410085 Published Online October 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/eng) CFD Simulation of Scale Influence on the Hydrodynamics of an Internal Loop Airlift Reactor * Reza Davarnejad , Ehsan Bagheripoor, Abolfazl Sahraei Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Arak University, Arak, Iran * Email: R-Davarnejad@araku.ac.ir Received July 12, 2012; revised August 14, 2012; accepted August 25, 2012 ABSTRACT In this work, the overall gas hold-up in the riser and down-comer of three internal airlift reactors with a working volume of 10.5, 32 and 200 l at the range of temperatures 18˚C - 21˚C, under atmospheric pressure was simulated using Com- putational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The range of superficial gas velocity was 0.5 - 3 cm/s. The three reactors geometri- cally were similar to each other. CFD simulation and experimental data showed that the gas hold-up in the riser and down-comer increased by increasing the reactor scale. It was concluded that the simulated data were in good agreement with the experimental ones obtained from the literature. Keywords: Internal Loop Airlift Reactor; Gas Hold-Up; CFD 1. Introduction alcohol concentration reduces the bubble diameter. Joshi et al. applied a model for the external loop air- Liquid circulation velocity and gas hold-up are the major lifts [12]. The reactor height of was used as a key-pa- hydrodynami