CFD Simulation of Two-Phase Flow in a Hybrid Pulsed Sieve-Plate Solvent Extraction Column: Prediction of Holdup and Axial-dispersion Coefficients

Abstract

Two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for a hybrid pulsed sieve-plate solvent extraction column, as well as a standard pulsed sieve-plate column, have been developed with commercial software ANSYS FLUENT. Hydrodynamic performance including two-phase distribution and velocity fields are generated with the models and comparisons are made between two columns. Important parameters including holdup and axial-dispersion coefficients are studied systematically, and CFD successfully predicts the higher holdup and lower axial-dispersion coefficients for the hybrid pulsed sieve-plate column as measured in the experiments. CFD also gives reasonable predictions for the effect of pulsation ..