The Breakup and Coalescence of Bubbles Considering Interphase Turbulence Transfer in Bubbly Flows

The ability to accurately predict the bubble size distribution in bubble column reactors is a requirement for any process design as well as for scale-up. The bubble size distribution depends mainly on the magnitude of bubble breakup and coalescence. Several breakup and coalescence models have been developed assuming different driving mechanisms, such as turbulence dissipation and shear rate of the liquid phase. The proposed breakup and coalescence models contain turbulence contributions in breakup and coalescence of the bubbles and also the relative velocity of the bubbles. The realistic expressionfor the mentioned terms is missing for the implementation of the breakup and coalescence models due to poor knowledge on the turbulence behavior of the bubbly flows. Here, bubble-liquid turbulence interactions of the bubbly flows are considered to predictparticipating turbulence energy in breakup and also relative velocity of the bubbles at coalescence of the bubbles.