Gas–liquid–solid flow modelling in a bubble column

An alternative approach to the modelling of solid–liquid and gas–liquid–solid flows for a 5:1 height to width aspect ratio bubble column is presented here. A modified transport equation for the volume fraction of a dispersed phase has been developed for the investigation of turbulent buoyancy driven flows (Chem. Eng. Proc., in press). In this study, a modified transport equation has been employed for discrete phase motion considering both solid–liquid and gas–liquid–solid flows. The modelling of the three-phase flow in a bubble column was achieved in the following case: injecting a slug of solid particles into the column for 10 s at a velocity of 0.1 m s−1 and then the gas phase flow was initiated with a superficial gas velocity of 0.02 cm s−1.