Submerged gas jet into a liquid bath: a review

Abstract

Gas-liquid jet reactors are widely used in commercial applications such as condensing jets for direct contact feedwater heaters and steam jet pumps, because of their efficient heat- and mass-transfer characteristics. These are also used for the blowdown of primary nuclear boiler systems into a water bath, without releasing fissionable materials into the atmosphere. Reacting jets are of major interest in metal processing and thermal energy sources that involve submerged injection of an oxidizer into a liquid metal bath. The design of gas-liquid jet reactors is strongly dependent on the plume dimensions and the flow pattern in the liquid phase. In the present review paper, a critical analysis of the published literature on the fluid dynamics and heat transfer for gas-liquid jet reactors has been performed. The analysis has been extended for the empirical, semiempirical, and analytical attempts for the correlations of experimental observations. The published works on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have also been critically analyzed. A comprehensive discussion has been presented and an attempt has been made to arrive at a coherent theme that clearly describes the present status of the published literature. Furthermore, recommendations have been made that are expected to be useful for the design engineers as well as researchers, to improve the reliability in the design of this important class of reactors.