Drag Coefficient Models

There is an extensive amount of drag coefficient correlations available in the

literature. Five important correlations, developed by Sciller Naumann (1933), Harmathy

(1960), Ihme et al. (1972), Ishii and Zuber (1979), and Mei et al. (1994), have been

summarized in this Appendix. Stoke flow condition is also included for completeness.

Sciller Naumann (1933)

Valid for undistorted particle regime.

C d 
24
Re 

1  0.15 Re 0.687 .  (D.1)

Harmathy (1960)

It should be corrected by viscosity effect and is valid for distorted particle regime.

4 ( l   g ) g
C d  rd , (D.2)
3 

where rd and  represent the drag radius and the surface tension, respectively. Gas and

liquid densities are given by  g and  l , respectively. g represents the gravitational

acceleration terms in the vertical direction.

Ihme et al. (1972)

24
C d   5.48 Re 0.573  0.36 . (D.3)
Re 

1
 2

Ishii and Zuber (1979)

C d 
24
Re 

1  0.1 Re 0.75 . (D.4)

Mei et al. (1994)

  8 1

16 1  0.5   .
C d  1    (1  3.315 Re  )  (D.5)
Re    Re  2  

Stoke’s Flow

24 . (D.6)
C d 
Re 

The particle Reynolds number, Re  , which is based on the slip velocity on the

particle interface Vs and the continuous-phase molecular viscosity, is defined as:


2 rd V s  c
Re   , (D.7)
c

where  c and  c represent the density and viscosity, respectively, for the continuous

phase. According to Drew and Lahey (1979), it is not clear whether such models are valid

for multidimensional application due to differences between results obtained from the

models and available experimental data. Therefore and due to those uncertainties

regarding the extension of these relations to local multidimensional two-phase flow

situations, a careful selection of the appropriate correlation for C d must be considered.

Fig. D.1 shows the results obtained by using some correlations for drag

coefficients, given by Eqs. D.1 and D.3 - D.6, as a function of Reynolds number Re  .
 3

DRAG COEFFICIENT CORRELATIONS

100

10
Drag Coefficient

0.1

0.01

0.001

0.0001
1.0E+00 1.0E+01 1.0E+02 1.0E+03 1.0E+04 1.0E+05

Reynolds Number

Mei et al. (1994) Sciller Naumann (1933) Ishii and Zuber (1979)
Ihme et al. (1972) Stoke's Regime

Figure D.1  Drag Coefficient Correlations.

According to Fig. D.1, all correlations perform very well for low to moderate

Reynolds numbers (Re < 100). However, for large Reynolds numbers (Re > 100), the

correlations show large differences. The Ihme et al. (1972) correlation, for example,

shows that for Re bigger than 10000, the correlation tends to predict a constant drag

coefficient equal to 0.44, approximately. Based on this result, Ihme’s correlation was

selected for estimating drag coefficient in this work.