Coughtrie, AR, Borman, DJ and Sleigh, PA (2013) Effects of turbulence modelling on prediction of flow characteristics in a bench-scale anaerobic gas-lift digester. Bioresource Technology, 138. 297 - 306 (9). ISSN 0960-8524
Abstract
Flow in a gas-lift digester with a central draft-tube was investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and different turbulence closure models. The k-ω Shear-Stress-Transport (SST), Renormalization-Group (RNG) k-∊, Linear Reynolds-Stress-Model (RSM) and Transition-SST models were tested for a gas-lift loop reactor under Newtonian flow conditions validated against published experimental work. The results identify that flow predictions within the reactor (where flow is transitional) are particularly sensitive to the turbulence model implemented; the Transition-SST model was found to be the most robust for capturing mixing behaviour and predicting separation reliably. Therefore, Transition-SST is recommended over k-∊ models for use in comparable mixing problems. A comparison of results obtained using multiphase Euler–Lagrange and singlephase approaches are presented. The results support the validity of the singlephase modelling assumptions in obtaining reliable predictions of the reactor flow. Solver independence of results was verified by comparing two independent finite-volume solvers (Fluent-13.0sp2 and OpenFOAM-2.0.1).
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2013, Elsevier. This is an open access article. |
Keywords: | Anaerobic digestion; CFD; turbulence modeling; gas-lift; multiphase; mixing; bio-reactor |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Civil Engineering (Leeds) > Inst for Pathogen Control Engineering (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 May 2014 15:38 |
Last Modified: | 26 Jun 2014 14:22 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.03.162 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.biortech.2013.03.162 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:78804 |