A Semi-empirical Correlation for Pressure Drop in Packed Beds of Spherical Particles

The effect of a confining wall on the pressure drop of fluid flow through packed beds of spherical particles with small bed-to-particle diameter ratios was investigated to develop an improved pressure drop correlation. The dependency of pressure loss on both wall friction and increased porosity near the wall was accounted for by using a theoretical approach. A semi-empirical model was created based upon the capillary-orifice model, which included a wall correction factor for the inertial pressure loss. In this model, packed beds were treated as a bundle of capillary tubes whose orifice diameter in the core region was different from that of the wall region. Using this model, a new pressure drop correlation was obtained, based on the Ergun equation and applicable for a wide range of Reynolds numbers (10⁻²–10³). The proposed correlation was compared with previous correlations, as well as with experimental data. This correlation showed close agreement with the experimental data for both low- and high-Reynolds number regimes and for a wide range of bed-to-particle diameter ratios. The ratio of the pressure drop in finite packing to that in homogeneous packing was then calculated. This ratio clearly shows how the wall effect depends on the Reynolds number and the bed-to-particle diameter ratio.     

3D CFD modeling of acetone hydrogenation in fixed bed reactor with spherical particles

Acetone hydrogenation in a fixed bed reactor packed with spherical catalyst particles was simulated to study the effects of inlet gas velocity and particle diameter on hydrogenation reaction. Computational results show that the catalyst particles in the reactor are almost isothermal, and the high isopropanol concentration appears at the lee of the particles. With the increase of inlet velocity, the outlet isopropanol mole fraction decreases, and the total pressure drop increases drastically. Small diameter catalyst particles are favorable for acetone hydrogenation, but result in large pressure drop.     

Extrudate Trilobe Catalysts and Loading Effects on Pressure Drop and Dynamic Liquid Holdup in Porous Media of Trickle Bed Reactors

The hydrodynamics of concurrent gas-liquid downflow through a porous media of fixed bed reactor has been studied experimentally in a range of trickling flow rates. A pilot bed is packed with industrial spherical and extrudate trilobe catalysts. The industrial trilobe catalysts are packed in a bed using two different methods: random close or dense packing and random sock packing. The experiments are performed for single phase in the cases of wet and dry packed beds and for two-phase flow conditions. The comparisons of pressure drops as well as liquid holdup are carried out for the above three different porous media, random close, dense packing and random sock packing. It is shown that the pressure drop of the dense loaded bed is higher than that of spherical particles which have approximately the same porosity. The results also revealed that the bed porosity, shape and contact points of the loaded catalyst have significant effects on the dynamic liquid holdup of the TBRs. Finally, a new correlation was developed for dynamic liquid holdup and pressure drop calculation for trilobe dense and sock catalyst beds and beds which are loaded with spherical particles.     

A correlation for yield stress fluid flow through packed beds

Relatively few correlations are available for non-Newtonian fluid flows through packed beds, even though such fluids are frequently used in industry. In this paper, a correlation is presented for yield stress fluid flow through packed beds. The correlation is developed by introducing the yield stress model in place of the Newtonian model used in deriving Erguns equation. The resulting model has three parameters that are functions of the geometry and roughness of the particle surfaces. Two of the parameters can be deduced in the limit as the yield stress becomes negligible and the model reduces to Erguns equation for Newtonian fluids. The third model parameter is determined from experimental data. The correlation relates a defined friction factor to the dimensionless Reynolds and Hedstrom numbers and can be used to predict pressure drop for flow of a yield stress fluid through a packed bed of spherical particles. Conditions for flow or no-flow are also determined in the correlation. Comparison of model calculations, between a Newtonian and a yield stress fluid for flow penetration into a packed bed of spheres, shows the yield stress fluid initially performs similar to the Newtonian fluid, at large Reynolds numbers. At lower Reynolds numbers the yield stress effect becomes important and the flow rate significantly decreases when compared to the Newtonian fluid.     

Thermal and hydraulic performance of a three-phase fluidized bed cooling tower

An experimental study was made of the thermal and hydraulic characteristics of a three-phase fluidized bed cooling tower. The experiments were carried out in a packed tower of 200 mm diameter and 2.5 m height. The packing used was spongy rubber balls 12.7 mm in diameter and with a density of 375 kg/m³. The tower characteristic was evaluated. The air-side pressure drop and the minimum fluidization velocity were measured as a function of water/air mass flux ratio (0.4–2), static bed height (300–500 mm), and hot water inlet temperature (301–334 K).

The experimental results indicate that the tower characteristics KaV/L increases with increases in the bed static height and hot water inlet temperature and with decreases in the water/air mass flux ratio. It is also shown that the air-side pressure drop increases very slowly with increases in air velocity. The minimum, fluidization velocity was found to be independent of the static bed height.

The data obtained were used to develop a correlation between the tower characteristics, hot water inlet temperature, static bed height, and the water/air mass flux ratio. The mass transfer coefficient of the three-phase fluidized bed cooling tower is much higher than that of packed-bed cooling towers with higher packing height.     

Experimental Study on the Effective Particle Diameter of a Packed Bed with Non-Spherical Particles

An experimental study is conducted to determine the characteristics of frictional pressure drops of fluid flow in porous beds packed with non-spherical particles. The objective is to examine the applicability of the Ergun equation to flow resistance assessment for packed beds with non-spherical particles. The experiments are carried out on the POMECOFL facility at KTH. Hollow spheres and cylinders are used to pack the beds. Either water or air is chosen as the working fluid. The experimental data show that the Ergun equation is applicable to all the test beds if the effective particle diameter used in the equation is chosen as the equivalent diameter of the particles, which is the product of Sauter mean diameter and shape factor of the particles in each bed.     

An experimental study of electrorheological fluid flow through a packed bed of glass beads

This paper shows that pressure drop-flow rate performance of an electrorheological (ER) fluid flowing through a packed bed of glass beads is consistent with a modified Ergun equation for yield stress flow through a packed bed. ER fluids are of scientific and engineering interest due to the sensitivity of their rheological properties on the applied electric field. As far as we know ER fluids have not been studied for flows through porous media. In this work a silica particle–silicone oil suspension is pumped through a rectangular packed bed of glass beads with applied electric fields. The silica particles are observed to form fibrous structures parallel to the electric field that stretch between the beads and extend between the electrodes. The pressure drop-flow rate performance agrees well with the expected performance calculated from a modified Ergun equation for a yield stress fluid flow through the packed bed with the viscosity and yield stress as functions of the applied electric field.     

Modeling fluid and heat transport in the reactive, porous bed of downdraft (biomass) gasifier

A fluid flow and heat transfer model has been developed for the reactive, porous bed of the biomass gasifier to simulate pressure drop, temperature profile in the bed and flow rates. The conservation equations, momentum equation and energy equation are used to describe fluid and heat transport in porous gasifier bed. The model accounted for drag at wall, and the effect of radial as well as axial variation in bed porosity to predict pressure drop in bed. Heat transfer has been modeled using effective thermal conductivity approach. Model predictions are validated against the experiments, while effective thermal conductivity values are tested qualitatively using models available in literature. Parametric analysis has been carried out to investigate the effect of various parameters on bed temperature profile and pressure drop through the gasifier. The temperature profile is found to be very sensitive to gas flow rate, and heat generation in oxidation zone, while high bed temperature, gas flow rate and the reduction in feedstock particle size are found to cause a marked increase in pressure drop through the gasifier. The temperatures of the down stream zones are more sensitive to any change in heat generation in the bed as compared to upstream zone. Author recommends that the size of preheating zone may be extended up to pyrolysis zone in order to enhance preheating of input air, while thermal insulation should not be less than 15 cm.     

Experimental investigation on the distribution uniformity and pressure drop of perforated plate distributors for the innovative spray-type packed bed thermal storage

As an innovative thermal energy technology, the spray-type packed bed has advantages of high efficiency and low cost. A liquid distributor is the key component for the spray-type packed bed for scattering heat-transfer liquid drops evenly. In this study, the distribution performance and pressure drop of the perforated plate distributors of different orifice diameters were studied experimentally. The experimental results indicate that orifice diameter has a greater effect on the distribution performance compared to flow rate. With an increase in flow rate, the flow pattern through the distributor changes from the uncovered drop to the covered drop and then to the jet flow. The covered drop pattern shows the best performance with a good distribution and a small pressure drop simultaneously, which is the design and optimization principle of the distributor for a spray-type packed bed.     

CFD-DEM simulation of spouting of corn-shaped particles

Three dimensionally coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) were used to investigate the flow of corn-shaped particles in a cylindrical spouted bed with a conical base. The particle motion was modeled by the DEM, and the gas motion by the k-? two-equation turbulent model. A two-way coupling numerical iterative scheme was used to incorporate the effects of gas–particle interactions in terms of momentum exchange. The corn-shaped particles were constructed by a multi-sphere method. Drag force, contact force, Saffman lift force, Magnus lift force, and gravitational force acting on each individual particle were considered in establishing the mathematical modeling. Calculations were carried out in a cylindrical spouted bed with an inside diameter of 200 mm, a height of 700 mm, and a conical base of 60°. Comparison of simulations with experiments showed the availability of the multi-sphere method in simulating spouting action with corn-shaped particles, but it depended strongly on the number and the arrangement of the spherical elements. Gas–solid flow patterns, pressure drop, particle velocity and particle concentration at various spouting gas velocity were discussed. The results showed that particle velocity reaches a maximum at the axis and then decreases gradually along the radial direction in the whole bed. Particle concentration increases along the radial direction in the spout region but decreases in the fountain region, while it is nearly constant in the annulus region. Increasing spouting gas velocity leads to larger pressure drop, remarkably increased speed of particle moving upward or downward, but decreased particle concentration.     

Mass transfer and dispersion around an active cylinder in cross flow and buried in a packed bed

The present work describes the mass transfer process between a moving fluid and a slightly soluble cylinder, with the axis perpendicular to flow direction, buried in a packed bed of small inert particles, with uniform voidage. Fluid flow in the packed bed around the cylinder was assumed to follow Darcy’s law and, at each point, dispersion of solute was assumed to be determined by radial and axial dispersion coefficients, in the cross-stream and streamwise directions, respectively. Numerical solutions of the differential equation describing solute mass conservation were undertaken to obtain the concentration field near the soluble surface and the mass transfer flux was integrated to give the Sherwood number as a function of the relevant parameters. Mathematical expressions are proposed that describes accurately the dependence found numerically between the value of the Sherwood number and the values of Peclet number, Schmidt number and the ratio between the diameter of cylinder and the diameter of inerts.     

Numerical study on adsorption enhancement of rectangular adsorption bed

The present paper has dealt with the one-sidewall cooling effect of spherical adsorbent particles packed in a rectangular bed on water vapor adsorption characteristics by a 2-dimensional numerical analysis. The analysis model was considered that one-sidewall of a rectangular packed bed with homogeneous spherical silica gel particles was cooled and another walls were adiabatic. The moist air flowed into the rectangular adsorption bed packed with spherical adsorbent particles. Fuji Sylsia silica gel B was selected as a suitable adsorbent with high adsorption ability over high relative humidity. Numerical results revealed the effects of moist air inlet humidity, airflow velocity, size of spherical silica gel particles, width of the rectangular packed bed, and the side-wall cooling temperature on the amount of water vapor adsorption.     

Experimental study of planar shock wave interactions with dense packed sand wall

A dense packed sand wall is impacted by a planar shock wave in a horizontal shock tube to study the shock-sand wall interaction. The incident shock Mach number ranges from 2.18 to 2.38. A novel device for actively rupturing diaphragm is designed for the driver section of the shock tube. An apparatus for loading particles is machined by the electrical discharge cutting technique to create a dense packed particle wall. High-speed schlieren imaging system and synchronized pressure measurement system are used together to capture the wave structures and particle cloud velocity. The dynamic evolution model from dense packed particles to dense gas–solid cloud at the initial driving stage is established. The blockage and permeation effects of the sand wall work together and influence each other. The high pressure gas behind the incident shock wave blocked by the sand wall pushes the upstream front of the wall forward like a piston. Meanwhile, the high speed gas permeating through the sand wall drags the sands of the most downstream layer forward. The incident shock strength, initial sand wall thickness and particle diameter are varied respectively to investigate the shock attenuation and the wall acceleration. Increasing the sands diameter or mixing in small diameter sands can significantly attenuate the incident shock. The smaller particles or the particles in thinner wall can be dispersed into a larger range in the process of transform from dense packed particles to dense gas–solid cloud. Moreover, the stronger incident shock can disperse the particles into a larger region.     

A numerical investigation into the solids phase chromatography using a combined continuous and discrete approach

Solids phase chromatography for particle classification is based on different retention times of particles with different properties when they are elutriated through a confined geometry.This work aims at a fundamental understanding of such a technology by using the combined continuous and discrete method.A packed bed is employed as the model confined geometry.The numerical method is compared first with experimental observations,followed by a parametric analysis of the effects on the flow hydrodynamics and solids behaviour of various parameters including the number of injected particles,the superficial gas velocity,the contact stiffness and the diameter ratio of the packed column to the packed particles.The results show that the modelling captures some important features of the flow of an injected pulse of fine particles in a packed bed. An increase in the number of injected particles or the superficial gas velocity reduces the retention time,whereas the contact stiffness does not show much effect over the range of 5×102 to5×104 N/m.It is also found that the effect on the retention time of the diameter ratio of the packed column to the packed particles seems complex showing a non-monotonous dependence.     

固定床化学链燃烧氧化反应的数值模拟

基于Chimera网格采用有限体积法模拟了450个颗粒随机填充固定床中的化学链燃烧的氧化反应过程,并采用三维瞬态N-S方程,结合压力Poisson方程方法,详细分析了床层入口Re=5时的颗粒内部和外部的传质传热过程．模拟结果揭示了在大颗粒的固定床中,颗粒内部有效扩散系数对颗粒内部的传质起着决定性作用,而且颗粒表面的浓度梯度决定了总反应速率;另外,有惰性芯的结构化颗粒能有效地改善颗粒内部总的反应速率,颗粒的转化速率,并且能使床层很快地达到热平衡．模拟结果能更好地帮助我们认识固定床化学链反应器中的反应和组分传递机理．     

Some hydrodynamic aspects of 3-phase inverse fluidized bed

Hydrodynamics of 3-phase inverse fluidized bed is studied experimentally using low density particles for different liquid and gas velocities. The hydrodynamic characteristics studied include pressure drop, minimum liquid and gas fluidization velocities and phase holdups. The minimum liquid fluidization velocity determined using the bed pressure gradient, decreases with increase in gas velocity. The axial profiles of phase holdups shows that the liquid holdup increases along the bed height, whereas the solid holdup decreases down the bed. However, the gas holdup is almost uniform in the bed.     

Two-phase non-linear model for blood flow in asymmetric and axisymmetric stenosed arteries

The pulsatile flow of a two-phase model for blood flow through axisymmetric and asymmetric stenosed narrow arteries is analyzed, treating blood as a two-phase model with the suspension of all the erythrocytes in the core region as the Herschel-Bulkley material and plasma in the peripheral layer as the Newtonian fluid. The perturbation method is applied to solve the resulting non-linear implicit system of partial differential equations. The expressions for various flow quantities are obtained. It is found that the pressure drop, plug core radius, wall shear stress increase as the yield stress or stenosis height increases. It is noted that the velocity increases, longitudinal impedance decreases as the amplitude increases. For asymmetric stenosis, the wall shear stress increases non-linearly with the increase of the axial distance. The estimates of the increase in longitudinal impedance to flow of the two-phase Herschel-Bulkley material are significantly lower than those of the single-phase Herschel-Bulkley material. The results show the advantages of two-phase flow over single-phase flow in small diameter arteries with stenosis.     

A numerical investigation into the solids phase chromatography using a combined continuous and discrete approach

Solids phase chromatography for particle classification is based on different retention times of particles with different properties when they are elutriated through a confined geometry. This work aims at a fundamental understanding of such a technology by using the combined continuous and discrete method. A packed bed is employed as the model confined geometry. The numerical method is compared first with experimental observations, followed by a parametric analysis of the effects on the flow hydrodynamics and solids behaviour of various parameters including the number of injected particles, the superficial gas velocity, the contact stiffness and the diameter ratio of the packed column to the packed particles. The results show that the modelling captures some important features of the flow of an injected pulse of fine particles in a packed bed. An increase in the number of injected particles or the superficial gas velocity reduces the retention time, whereas the contact stiffness does not show much effect over the range of 5 × 10^2 to 5× 10^4 N/m. It is also found that the effect on the retention time of the diameter ratio of the packed column to the packed particles seems complex showing a non-monotonous dependence.     

Magnetic filtration of an iron oxide aerosol by means of magnetizable grates

The cleaning of gases with low concentrations of small ferromagnetic or paramagnetic particles is a difficult task for conventional filtration. A new alternative procedure, magnetic filtration, is used in this work. Iron oxide aerosol was generated by elutriation of iron oxide particles from a fluidized bed consisting of a mixture of Geldart-C iron oxide powder and large spherical Geldart-B sand particles. The aerosol was filtered by means of a magnetic filter which consisted of one, two or three iron grates staggered to each other. The experimental installation contained also an isokinetic sampling system and a Microtrac SRA 150 Particle Analyser. A theoretical expression for filtration efficiency was deduced from a previous model taking into account the different forces acting on the iron oxide particles. Experimental filtration efficiency matches quite well calculated theoretical efficiency. It was found that an increase in particle size, in thee number of grates or in the applied magnetic field produced higher filtration efficiencies up to 100% in some cases. In all filtration experiments pressure drop through the magnetic filter was very small.     

Investigation of the characteristics of particulate flows through fibrous filters using the lattice Boltzmann method

A fibrous filter is one of the most common systems used to separate suspended particles from air.Two important factors(i.e.,the pressure drop and capture efficiency) are usually used to evaluate the performance of this type of filter.This study considers three two-dimensional arrangements of fibers(parallel,staggered,and random) to geometrically model fibrous media.The lattice Boltzmann method is employed to numerically simulate fluid flow through the filter.The Lagrangian form of the equation of motion of a particle is numerically solved to track the path of each particle in the flow field,where a one-way interaction between the fluid and particles is considered.The effects of pertinent parameters such as the fiber arrangement,solid volume fraction,particle-to-fiber diameter ratio,particle-to-fluid density ratio,Reynolds number,Stokes number,and size of the fibrous medium on the pressure drop and capture efficiency are studied.The obtained results are compared with existing empirical and theoretical findings and discussed.