Flow characteristics of gas-liquid-particle mixing in a gas-stirred ladle system with throughflow

An experimental study is performed on air-liquid-particle mixing, resulting from an air-particle mixture injected into a liquid flowing through a slender ladle. Flow visualization combined with image processing is employed to investigate the bubble and particle behavior at the nozzle outlet. Effort is directed to particle discrimination in both the liquid and the bubbles to determine particle distribution, which affects the mixing performance of gas bubbles, solid particles and liquid. A real-time movement of bubble and particle behavior can be visualized by means of image processing with the use of a slow-motion video recording. It is disclosed that the particles injected through the nozzle may stick on the inner surface of the gas bubble, break through the bubble surface, or mingle with the gas stream to form a two-phase jet, depending on the particle-to-gas mass flow rate ratio. It is observed that when a solid-gas two-phase jet penetrates deeper in the horizontal direction, the particles and bubbles rise along the vertical sidewall and simultaneously spread in the transverse direction, thus promoting a better liquid-particle mixing. The application of the slow-motion video recording results in quantitative evaluations of both the penetration depth of particles or of gas-particles from the injection nozzle and the velocity distribution along the sidewall.List of symbols B Width of water vessel, m - B _n Nozzle location on bottom surface of water vessel, m - d _o Diameter of a gas-particle injection nozzle, m - H Height of water vessel, m - H _n Nozzle location on vertical surface of water vessel, m - L Penetration length of particles or of particles and gas from the nozzle, m - Q _g Volumetric flow rate of gas, m³/s - Q _l Volumetric flow rate of water, m³/s - Q _s Volumetric flow rate of particle, m³/s - Re _g Gas Reynolds number based on inner diameter of the air-particle injection nozzle - t Time, sec. - W Thickness of water vessel, m - x Transverse coordinate, m - y Longitudinal coordinate, m - Mass flow rate ratio of particles to gas Visiting scholar on leave from the Mechanical Engineering Department, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, JapanThe work reported was supported by the National Science Foundation under the Grant No. CTS-8921584