Numerical investigation of void fraction distribution for comparative analysis of flow patterns repartition in thermal driven bubble pumps

Identifier:  imarina:9241634

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina9241634

Authors:  Garma R; Sioud D; Stiriba Y; Bourouis M; Bellagi A

Abstract:
Bubble pump, one of the most important component are in the diffusion absorption machine, is used for the circulation of the liquid mixture and has a considerable influence on its performances. In the present paper, numerical simulation of the heating repartition effect on the boiling flow in this component is performed with the commercial CFD package ANSYS-FLUENT 12.0. Eulerian multiphase flow framework is used to model the phases' interactions. User-Defined Functions (UDFs) are provided to compute the wall heat transfer and to calculate the inter-phase heat and mass transfer. Heat is supplied at the wall of the pump tube. Full and partial pipe heating are considered to exanimate two different configurations of the bubble pump. Pure water is used as working fluid. The void fraction distribution is calculated in order to localize the onset of vapor generation and to predict the flow patterns throughout the tube length