Coalescence kernel

Modeling and Simulation subsection.) It is necessary to determine both the mechanism and kernels which describe growth. For fine powders within the noninertial regime of growth, all collisions result in successful coalescence provided binder is present. Coalescence occurs via a random, size-independent kernel which is only a func tion of liquid loading, or... 

Coalescence Coalescence is the most difficult mechanism to model. It is easiest to write the population balance (Eq. 20-71) in terms of number distribution by volume n v) because granule volume is conserved in a coalescence event. The key parameter is the coalescence kernel or rate constant P(ti,i ). The kernel dictates the overall rate of coalescence, as well as the effect of granule size on coalescence... 

Analytical solutions for self-preseivdng growth do exist for some coalescence kernels and such benavior is sometimes seen in practice (Fig. 20-97). Roughly speaking, self-preseivdng growth implies that the width of the size distribution increases in proportion to mean granule size, i.e., the width is uniquely related to the mean of the distribution. 

Coalescence Typical Growth Kernels Kapur and Fuerstenau (1964)... 

Analytical solutions of the self-preserving distribution do exist for some coalescence kernels, and such behavior is sometimes seen in practice (see Fig. 40). For most practical applications, numerical solutions to the population balance are necessary. Several numerical solution techniques have been proposed. It is usual to break the size range into discrete intervals and then solve the series of ordinary differential equations that result. A geometric discretization reduces the number of size intervals (and equations) that are required. Litster, Smit and Hounslow (1995) give a general discretized population balance for nucleation, growth and coalescence. Figure 41 illustrates the evolution of the size distribution for coalescence alone, based on the kernel of Ennis Adetayo (1994). 

Just like in the context of simulating solids suspension, one may wonder whether much may be expected from just sticking to the two-fluid approach combined with population balances. A better way ahead might rather be to combine population balances with LES, while proper relations for the various kernels used for describing coalescence and break-up processes could be determined from DNS of periodic boxes comprising a certain number of bubbles (or drops). The latter simulations would serve to study the detailed response of bubbles or drops to the ambient turbulent flow. 

The kij are the elements of the reaction kernel, given in Smoluchows-ki s original theory for coalescing spherical particles by the diffusional collision rate as a constant, ks, independent of i and j ... 

A constant reaction kernel is to be expected in the absence of enzyme reaction if the aggregation rate is determined by the Brownian motion of spherical particles which coalesce to form larger spheres. To a first approximation, the increased collisional cross-section is then compensated for by the decrease in diffusion rate (von Smoluchowski,... 

The importance of developing coalescence and breakage kernels based on physical grounds became evident for the goal of predicting liquid-liquid dispersion properties. Subsequent workers devoted efforts in this direction. 

However, in other cases the model predictions deviate much more from each other and were in poor agreement the experimental data considering the measurable quantities like phase velocities, gas volume fractions and bubble size distributions. An obvious reason for this discrepancy is that the breakage and coalescence kernels rely on ad-hoc empiricism determining the particle-particle and particle-turbulence interaction phenomena. The existing param-eterizations developed for turbulent flows are high order functions of the local... 

Venneker et al [118] made an off-line simulation of the underlying flow and the local gas fractions and bubble size distributions for turbulent gas dispersions in a stirred vessel. The transport of bubbles throughout the vessel was estimated from a single-phase steady-state flow fleld, whereas literature kernels for coalescence and breakage were adopted to close the population balance equation predicting the gas fractions and bubble size distributions. 

The fundamental derivation of the population balance equation is considered general and not limited to describe gas-liquid dispersions. However, to employ the general population balance framework to model other particulate systems like solid particles and droplets appropriate kernels are required for the particle growth, agglomeration/aggregation/coalescence and breakage processes. Many droplet and solid particle closures are presented elsewhere (e.g., [96, 122, 25, 117, 75, 76, 46]). 

To close the population balance problem, models are required for the growth, birth and death kernels. It is required that these kernels are consistent with the inner coordinate used. The coalescence and breakage kernels presented in this chapter are expressed in terms of the particle diameter. 

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