Effect of surface texture and liquid property on the liquid film flow on an inclined wall

Liquid film flow used for separation processes such as absorption is required to increase thegas-liquid interfacial area in order to improve the separation performance. Furthermore, the low liquid loading in absorption processes is effective for the economic performance. Liquid film with low liquid loading, however, breaks up to rivulet flow, as well as reduces its interfacial area between gas and liquid. The present study focuses on detailed descriptions of the transition phenomena betweenfilm flow andrivulet flow by varying not only liquid flow rate but also liquid properties, as well as how such phenomena are affected by wall surface texture treatments. Results obtained by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model are validated by lab-scale experiments. The results of CFD show that a wavy surface is effective to prevent the liquid film break-up. Correlation equations for the wetted area ratio are derived as functions of the dimensionless parameters Weber number, Reynolds n...