Effect of swirl gas injection on bubble characteristics in a bubble column

Abstract

The attempt of this study is to obtain an effect of swirl gas injection on bubble characteristics, such as bubble share, size and velocity. A bubble detection technique has been developed for fast and accurate measurement of bubble size distributions on gas – liquid two systems. This techniques use advance digital image processing consists of edge detection and bubble edge recognition. Measurements are also carried out in mixing vessels to study the effect of impeller speed and gas sparging rate on the bubble size and its distributions. The investigation are carried out in a bubble column characterized with 57 cm and 61 cm height. The column was made of Plexiglas and equipped with a ring sparger. The top of the column was opened to atmosphere. The liquids used was tap water and the gas phase was air from air compressor. A high speed digital camera is employed for the measurement of the rise velocity of bubbles and etc. Bubble size decreased with increase in impeller speed, whereas the bubble population is increase as the sparger rotating speed increase from 30 rpm to 150 rpm.