Eulerian–Eulerian Modeling of Convective Heat Transfer Enhancement in Upward Vertical Channel Flows by Gas Injection

Two-phase bubbly flows by gas injection had been shown to enhance convective heat transfer in channel flows as compared with that of single-phase flows. The present work explores the effect of gas phase distribution such as inlet air volume fraction and bubble size on the convective heat transfer in upward vertical channel flows numerically. A two-dimensional (2D) channel flow of 10 cm wide × 100 cm high at 0.2 and 1.0 m/s inlet water and air superficial velocities in churn-turbulent flow regime, respectively, is simulated. Numerical simulations are performed using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code ANSYS fluent. The bubble size is characterized by the Eötvös number. The inlet air volume fraction is fixed at 10%, whereas the Eötvös number is maintained at 1.0 to perform parametric studies, respectively, in order to investigate the effect of gas phase distribution on average Nusselt number of the two-phase flows. All simulations are compared with a single-phase flow condition. To enhance heat transfer, it is determined that the optimum Eötvös number for the channel with a 10% inlet air volume fraction has an Eötvös number of 0.2, which is equivalent to a bubble diameter of 1.219 mm. Likewise, it is determined that the optimum volume fraction peaks at 30% inlet air volume fraction using an Eötvös number of 1.0.