Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Robert E. Spall

Committee

Robert E. Spall

Committee

Thomas H. Fronk

Committee

Barton Smith

Abstract

Modeling fluid behavior with computer numerical models can be very difficult due to the physical phenomenon which can be present in complex fluid systems. One difficult situation to model is when there is more than one type of fluid in a system. Some of these systems include fluids which do not mix, such as is the case when a liquid and a gas are present. In this situation, the gas phase will form bubbles which are dispersed throughout the liquid phase. Modeling the breakup and coalescence of these bubbles is critical to correctly model this type of situation.

There exist several different numerical methods for modeling bubble coalescence and breakup in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Various combinations of these models have been employed to model a bioreactor process in a stirred reactor tank. A mass transfer coefficient, K1a, has been calculated and compared to those found experimentally by Thermo-Fisher Scientific. The purpose is to validate the accuracy of currently available mathematical models for population balance equations (including various combination of bubble breakup and coalescence models) coupled with the calculation of mass transfer coefficients.

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Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on September 20, 2012.

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