UK consortium to tackle complex flow

London -- A UK consortium including BP and BHR Group has secured funding to develop measurement techniques and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling methods for complex flows in highly turbulent, highly gassed flows such as those found in multiphase, stirred tank chemical reactors.

The consortium, which also comprises UK SMEs, and academic partners gained funding for the two-year, £600,000 project from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Technology Programme.

For stream one of the project, which covers new instrumentation, Industrial Tomography Systems (ITS) and the University of Leeds will jointly develop a rapid tomography instrument, which can potentially be used to produce 3-D flow maps in real time.

Techniques to determine bubble behaviour in highly gassed systems will be developed by Leeds University and BHR to aid understanding of these complex phenomena, according to a BHR statement.

In stream two, BHR will work with BP to develop CFD modelling techniques for complex systems, including fully predictive models for highly turbulent and highly gassed systems. While CFD of stirred tank reactors has developed significantly over recent years, substantial challenges remain, particularly for highly gassed systems, BHR noted.

The project will conclude by bringing together the two streams through an experimental programme to validate both measurement and modelling techniques.