In this paper, we present numerical techniques for one-way coupling of CFD and
Population Balance Equations (PBE) based on the incompressible flow solver FeatFlow
which is extended with a) Chien’s Low-Reynolds number k − ε turbulence model [4],
b) breakage kernel model of Lehr et al. [34, 35], c) coalescence kernel model of Lehr
et al. [34]. The presented implementation ensures a strictly conservative treatment of
sink and source terms – arising due to breakage and/or coalescence – which is enforced
even for geometric discretization of the internal coordinate. Direct enforcement of the
aforementioned property is achieved by formulating the population balance equation with
respect to class holdups. The validation of our implementation which covers a wide
range of computational and experimental problems enables us to proceed into a three
dimensional application for a turbulent pipe flow. The aim of this paper is to highlight
the influence of different formulations of the novel theoretical breakage [29] and coalescence
models on the equilibrium distribution of the population, to reveal some misinterpretations
in the literature and, ultimately, to propose an implementation strategy for the threedimensional
one-way coupled CFD-PBE model.