Evaluation of the influence of air distributors in bubbles column

• Grant number: 13/11457-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2013
• End date: February 28, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Industrial Operations and Equipment for Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Guilherme José de Castilho
• Grantee: Aliandra Duarte Barbutti
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Química (FEQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Bubbles column is a device which allows the contact between two fluids in gas-liquid operations. Its application extends to a large range of industries, such as, chemistry, petrochemisty, metallurgical and biotechnology. The hidrodynamic behavior of bubbles column is an important element to predict the project parameters and those regarding mass and heat transference, maximum gas flow and others. Due to the complex hydrodynamics, parameters as geometry, gas distributor type, operations conditions and specific process data are subjects of study. Considering especially the gas distributors, they are applied in gas injection inside the column, which can create high levels of turbulence due to the dispersion. The majority of experimental studies related to bubbles columns are targeted to quantify the effects of operations conditions, system properties and column project according to its efficiency. For the development of new mathematic models, experimental data are necessary using both liquid and gas suitable techniques. There are different experimental techniques that have been developed and applied for years, such as the particle image velocimetry (PIV) and Shadow techniques, which result in the velocity field and the bubbles size, respectively. Therefore, this project aims to obtain experimental data in a cilindric bubbles column to evaluate the effect of gas distributors. For that, measures using PIV and Shadow's techniques will be realized, then evaluating parameters that can describe the distributors influence on the flow. (AU)