Modeling coalescence-breakup

There have been several attempts at models incorporating breakup and coalescence. Two concepts underlie many of these models binary breakup and a flow subdivision into weak and strong flows. These ideas were first used by Manas-Zloczower, Nir, and Tadmor (1982,1984) in modeling the dispersion of carbon black in an elastomer in a Banbury internal mixer. A similar approach was taken by Janssen and Meijer (1995) to model blending of two polymers in an extruder. In this case the extruder was divided into two types of zones, strong and weak. The strong zones correspond to regions... 

An attempt has been made by Tsouris and Tavlarides[5611 to improve previous models for breakup and coalescence of droplets in turbulent dispersions based on existing frameworks and recent advances. In both the breakup and coalescence models, two-step mecha-nisms were considered. A droplet breakup function was introduced as a product of droplet-eddy collision frequency and breakup efficiency that reflect the energetics of turbulent liquid-liquid dispersions. Similarly, a coalescencefunction was defined as a product of droplet-droplet collision frequency and coalescence efficiency. The existing coalescence efficiency model was modified to account for the effects of film drainage on droplets with partially mobile interfaces. A probability density function for secondary droplets was also proposed on the basis of the energy requirements for the formation of secondary droplets. These models eliminated several inconsistencies in previous studies, and are applicable to dense dispersions. 

As is evident from inspection of Table III turbulence modeling of multiphase flow systems requires major attention in the near future. Also the development of closure laws for phenomena taking place in the vicinity of interfaces such as coalescence, breakup, and accumulation of impurities should be considered in more detail. Once these requirements have been met, in principle, it would be possible to predict a.o. flow regime transition and the spatial distribution of the phases with confidence, which is of utmost importance to the chemical engineer dealing with the design of (novel) multiphase reactors. 

In order to obtain a correlation, the outflow of the effervescent spray was simulated by a numerical model based on the Navier-Stokes equations and the particle tracking method. The external gas flow was considered turbulent. In droplet phase modeling, Lagrangian approach was followed. Droplet primary and secondary breakup were considered in their model. Secondary breakup consisted of cascade atomization, droplet collision, and coalescence. The droplet mean diameter under different operating conditions and liquid properties were calculated for the spray SMD using the curve fitting technique [43] ... 

Exchange between large and small bubbles (bubble coalescence / breakup) Exchange between large and small bubbles (bubble shrinkage / expansion) Figure 13 A reactor model based on the EMMS approach. Reprinted from Jiang et al (2015) with permission from Elsevier. 

For fluid particles that continuously coalesce and breakup and where the bubble size distributions have local variations, there is still no generally accepted model available and the existing models are contradictory [20]. A population density model is required to describe the changing bubble and drop size. Usually, it is sufficient to simulate a handful of sizes or use some quadrature model, for example, direct quadrature method of moments (DQMOM) to decrease the number of variables. 

The treatment of mixing of immiscible fluids starts with a description of breakup and coalescence in homogeneous flows. Classical concepts are briefly reviewed and special attention is given to recent advances—satellite formation and self-similarity. A general model, capable of handling breakup and coalescence while taking into account stretching distributions and satellite formation, is described. 

The basic procedure of the VILM model is to send an initial distribution of drops through a specified number of strong and weak zones. With each pass through the strong and weak zones, the evolution of the drop distribution is determined based on the fundamentals of breakup and coalescence. 

In system 1, the 3-D dynamic bubbling phenomena in a gas liquid bubble column and a gas liquid solid fluidized bed are simulated using the level-set method coupled with an SGS model for liquid turbulence. The computational scheme in this study captures the complex topological changes related to the bubble deformation, coalescence, and breakup in bubbling flows. In system 2, the hydrodynamics and heat-transfer phenomena of liquid droplets impacting upon a hot flat surface and particle are analyzed based on 3-D level-set method and IBM with consideration of the film-boiling behavior. The heat transfers in... 

For the discrete bubble model described in Section V.C, future work will be focused on implementation of closure equations in the force balance, like empirical relations for bubble-rise velocities and the interaction between bubbles. Clearly, a more refined model for the bubble-bubble interaction, including coalescence and breakup, is required along with a more realistic description of the rheology of fluidized suspensions. Finally, the adapted model should be augmented with a thermal energy balance, and associated closures for the thermophysical properties, to study heat transport in large-scale fluidized beds, such as FCC-regenerators and PE and PP gas-phase polymerization reactors. 

Equation (A12) is widely used in RE, but it does not account for the specific interactions of the dispersed phase. In this respect current research is focused on drop population balance models, which account for the different rising velocities of the different-size droplets and their interactions, such as droplet breakup and coalescence (173-180). 

Delichatsios and Probstein (D4-7) have analyzed the processes of drop breakup and coagulation/coalescence in isotropic turbulent dispersions. Models were developed for breakup and coalescence rates based on turbulence theory as discussed in Section III and were formulated in terms of Eq. (107). They applied these results in an attempt to show that the increase of drop sizes with holdup fraction in agitated dispersions cannot be attributed entirely to turbulence dampening caused by the dispersed phase. These conclusions are determined after an approximate analysis of the population balance equation, assuming the size distribution is approximately Gaussian. 

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