On the Ideal Grid Resolution for Two Dimensional Eulerian Modeling of Gas–Liquid Flows

Abstract

A study was performed to investigate the interesting observation that when using an Eulerian–Eulerian model to simulate a bubble column flow in two dimensions, accuracy did not always increase with increasing grid resolution. A correlation was found between the characteristic bubble diameter numerically specified and grid size, which identified a threshold where results lose physical meaning. An ideal relationship between grid size and bubble diameter was determined to optimize grid resolution and retain accuracy. The twodimensional (2D) Eulerian model was validated using the experimental data of Rampure et al. (2003, “Modelling of GasLiquid/GasLiquidSolid Flows in Bubble Columns: Experiments and CFD Simulations,â€‌ Can. J. Chem. Eng., 81(3–4), pp. 692–706). Further studies demonstrated that grid resolution could be increased to improve the numerical accuracy for threedimensional (3D) simulations of the bubble column. The novel contributions of this study will show that the ratio of bubble diametertogrid cell size should equal 1/2 for the 2D simulations.