On the modeling and simulation of higher order breakage for vertical bubbly flows using the least squares method: Applications for bubble column and pipe flows

Most of the breakage models available in literature commonly assume binary breakage only. However, depending on the conditions, experimental observations suggest higher order breakage to be the dominant form of breakage induced by shear stress, often resulting in the formation of a number of small daughter particles. Ternary, quaternary or higher order breakage (up to 10 daughter particles) is not uncommon. This work presents an effort to incorporate higher order breakage effects into bubbly flows by extension of existing binary breakage models. The effects of higher order breakage terms are evaluated inside a multifluid-population balance based bubbly flow model. The results obtained from a least-squares finite element solver are compared with previous binary breakage mechanism simulations and experimental data when available. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.