Development of a Heat Transfer Coefficient Model via Experimental Validation

Abstract

Knowledge of the heat transfer coefficient is an essential prerequisite for any industrial gas/ liquid bubble column reactor design. In this paper, experiments were carried out in a laboratory scale bubble column using air-water and 10wt% glycerin-air solution systems. Experimental values of the heat transfer coefficient were compared with some of the previous published correlations and were also compared with the model predicted by ANN in our previous work (Ahmedzeki, 2007). The ANN model was found to be better than all previous published correlations. %AARE was 8.2 and %standard deviation was 7.85. A mechanistic model was also developed to analyze the system. The resulting correlation was a %AARE of 17.5 and %standard deviation of 15. Both the above models and the experimental results compared well with the previous published correlations.