Bubble interfacial area in a swirling contactor: Experiments and CFD simulations

The bubble size, gas holdup, and interfacial area in a swirling contactor were investigated through experiments and simulations. The interfacial area was obtained for liquids and gases with Reynolds numbers Re and Re, respectively. The contactor was divided into 12 subregions. When Re=23.8 and Re =20075.4, regions near the side wall and center of the swirl contactor exhibited small bubbles with diameters of 0.33–0.40 and 0.38–0.45 mm, respectively. Re was negatively related to bubble size, gas holdup, and interfacial area, whereas Re was positively related. The maximum bubble interfacial area among the 12 subregions was 530 m,and for the entire swirling contactor was 196.3 m with a gas–liquid ratio of 0.022. Euler-Euler simulations using the population balance model accurately predicted this area. Larger areas were obtained at lower Re values. Increasing the liquid velocity is not necessary to achieve larger areas, which indicates a contactor with lower energy consumption.