ABSTRACT
In gas-interacting slurry reactor, gas is distributed as a dispersed phase of bubbles of different sizes and shapes. Gas-interacting slurry columns applied in chemical processes are characterized by extremely complex fluid dynamics interactions between the gas and slurry phase. This chapter summarizes the importance of bubble size and its distribution. An enormous number of measurement techniques, including intrusive and nonintrusive methods, have been developed to investigate the bubble size and its flow behaviour in three-phase flow systems. The shape of the bubble may be classified as spherical, oblate ellipsoidal and spherical/ellipsoidal cap and so forth. In multiphase flow systems, bubble size changes due to break-up and/or coalescence of bubbles caused by bubble—bubble interactions. The energy depends on how the interfacial forces arise due to momentum transfer across the interface. The high energy dissipation results in the generation of a number of very fine bubbles by break-up mechanism are carried downward by the bulk liquid motion.
