| | Mathematical Modelling of dispersed phase flows using the population balance equation (PBE). The PBE is a modern transport equation derived from the statistical Boltzman equation, which handle bubble, particulate and droplet flows. These arise in most of chemical process engineering applications, which include reactive flows, separation and biological systems. In this regard, mathematical models were developed for the coupled hydrodynamics and mass transfer of liquid-liquid extraction columns, which include RDC, Kuhni, pulsed sieve tray, pulsed packed bed columns, high-pressure oil splitting reactors dual solvent extraction in pharmaceutical industries. | | | Hyperbolic population balances equations, which are Integro-partial differential equations to describe the evolution of discrete phase entities over space and time. Being a transport equation with geometrical dependencies, the PBE needs a numerical solution in general. In this regard, numerical methods are developed for both internal (particle properties) and external (physical space) coordinates. In this regard, discrete models of the particulate systems are developed such as the conservative discretization approach for droplet breakage in turbulent two-liquid phase flow, the SQMOM , the NQMOM, OPOSPM, the CQMOM and the constrained MaxEnt solutions of the population balance equation. This includes particular work on coupling the SQMOM, OPOSPM and NQMOM to CFD codes such as FLUENT, OPENFOAM and FPM. | | | Process synthesis, development and simulation (at the flowsheet level) for industrial scale chemical processes using available commercial and free flowsheeting software. This include steady state and dynamic analysis of multicomponent glycerin distillation plants, chlorine drying and ethane recovery plants with special interest in energy integration, control synthesis and analysis using SIMULINK of ethanol absorption from biofermentation processes. | | | Dynamic modelling of multi-scale processes using the hyperbolic theory of partial differential equations, which shed more light on the particle characteristic speeds. These peeds allowed us to develop a high resolution non-oscillatory central difference scheme, which is able to predict a set of travelling contact waves along space. Compared to the experimental data in a mini-plant Kuhni extraction column, the hyperbolic population balance models are found to predict the experimental Kuhni column start-up and response due to different disturbances in inlet flow and rotor speed. | | | Population balances, Mathematical Modelling of two-phase flow, CFD, Numerical modelling, Process modelling & Simulation
Solution of hyperbolic conservation laws using high resolution schemes |
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