Bubble Interfacial Area in a Swirling Contactor: Experiments and Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations

Abstract

The bubble size, gas holdup, and interfacial area in a swirling contactor were investigated through experiments and simulations. The interfacial area was obtained for liquids and gases with Reynolds numbers Rel and Reg, respectively. The contactor was divided into twelve subregions. Rel was negatively related to bubble size, gas holdup, and interfacial area, whereas Reg was positively associated. The maximum bubble interfacial area for the entire swirling contactor was 196.3 m−1 with a gas‐liquid ratio of 0.022. There is a trade‐off between centrifugal acceleration and bubble size for interfacial area.