Simulation of drop breakage in liquid–liquid system by coupling of CFD and PBM: Comparison of breakage kernels and effects of agitator configurations

This work focuses on drop breakage for liquid–liquid system with an adoption of numerical simulation by using computational fluid dynamics and population balance model (PBM) coupled with two-fluid model (TFM). Two different breakage kernels based on identical breakage mechanism but different descriptions of breaking time are taken into account in this work. Eight cases corresponding to distinct configurations of agitator are carried out to validate numerical predictions, namely agitators with different porosity and hole diameters, respectively implemented in Cases 1 to 5 and Cases 6 to 8. The results are compared with experimental data for testing the applicability of both kernels. Simulations are implemented, in this work, with an approach of class method for the solution of population balance model by the special-purpose computational fluid dynamics solver Fluent 16.1 based on finite volume method, and the grids used for meshing the solution domain are accomplished in a commercial software Gambit 2.4.6. The effects of configurations of agitator corresponding to different parameters mentioned above on final Sauter mean diameter are equally concentrated in this work. Analysis of both kernels and comparisons with experimental results reveal that, the second kernel has more decent agreement with experiments, and the results of investigations on effects of agitator configurations show that the influences of these parameters on Sauter mean diameter are marginal, but appropriate porosity and hole diameter are actually able to decrease Sauter mean diameter. These outcomes allow us to draw general conclusions and help investigate performances of liquid–liquid system.