Effect of Sparger Design on the Local Flow Field in a Bubble Column

A new approach is developed for visualizing the flow in bubble columns using the simultaneously measured two orthogonal velocity components. The methodology uses the simultaneously measured two-dimensional instantaneous velocity-time data obtained using LDA in a bubble column at several positions. The transformation of the data in terms of the magnitude and the direction of the resultant velocity vector proves to be a superior way to present the system dynamics. This approach is seen useful for the analysis of development of flow pattern in the column with a single point sparger (SPS). The results show strangely systematic behavior of the flow pattern for the case of SPS, which gets distorted for multipoint sparger. Surrogate data is generated and analyzed to discern the reason for such behavior in the data for the case of a single point sparger.