Parametric study of population balance model on the DEBORA flow boiling experiment

In two-fluid simulations of flow boiling, the modeling of the mean bubble diameter is a key parameter in the closure relations governing the intefacial transfer of mass, momentum, and energy. Monodispersed approach proved to be insufficient to describe the significant variation in bubble size during flow boiling in a heated pipe. A population balance model (PBM) has been employed to address these shortcomings. During nucleate boiling, vapor bubbles of a certain size are formed on the heated wall, detach and migrate into the bulk flow. These bubbles then grow, shrink or disintegrate by evaporation, condensation, breakage and aggregation. In this study, a parametric analysis of the PBM aggregation and breakage models has been performed to investigate their effect on the radial distribution of the mean bubble diameter and vapor volume fraction. The simulation results are compared with the DEBORA experiments (Garnier et al., 2001). In addition, the influence of PBM parameters on the local distribution of individual bubble size groups was also studied. The results have shown that the modeling of aggregation process has the largest influence on the results and is mainly dictated by the collisions due to flow turbulence.