CFD-PBM Simulation of Sauter Mean Diameter in a Stirred Sieve-Plate Extraction Column

Shenfeng Yuan; Dongxu Yao; Tinyao Liu; Hong Yin; Zhirong Chen

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c05031

CFD-PBM Simulation of Sauter Mean Diameter in a Stirred Sieve-Plate Extraction Column

ACS Omega. 2023 Nov 22;8(48):45535-45546. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c05031. eCollection 2023 Dec 5.

Authors

Shenfeng Yuan^{1

2}, Dongxu Yao¹, Tinyao Liu¹, Hong Yin^{1

3}, Zhirong Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P. R. China.
² Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Chemical Engineering Manufacture Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P. R. China.
³ Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Smart Biomaterials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P. R. China.

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics-population balance model (CFD-PBM)-coupled simulation method was established to simulate the Sauter mean diameter (d₃₂) in a stirred sieve-plate extraction column with Ansys Fluent 19.2. The droplet breakage and coalescence were considered, and the kernel functions were loaded into Fluent as a user-defined function (UDF). The simulated d₃₂ by different kernels was compared with the experimental values, and the results showed that the modified model considering the dispersed phase viscosity has better simulation accuracy and good applicability. In addition, the effects of different operating conditions on d₃₂ were investigated. When the stirring speed is increased, d₃₂ decreases. As the dispersed phase flow rate increases, d₃₂ increases, while the change in the continuous phase flow rate does not have a significant impact on d₃₂.