Experimental and numerical investigation to elucidate the fluid flow through packed beds with structured particle packings--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Patil, S., Gorges, C., Lòpez Bonilla, J., Stelter, M., Beyrau, F., & van Wachem, B. (2024). Experimental and numerical investigation to elucidate the fluid flow through packed beds with structured particle packings. Particuology, 89, 218-237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2023.11.002

Experimental and numerical investigation to elucidate the fluid flow through packed beds with structured particle packings

Shirin Patil^a, Christian Gorges^b, Joel Lòpez Bonilla^a, Moritz Stelter^a, Frank Beyrau^a, Berend van Wachem ^b *

a Laboratory of Technical Thermodynamics, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
b Chair of Mechanical Process Engineering, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany

10.1016/j.partic.2023.11.002

Volume 89, June 2024, Pages 218-237

Received 27 September 2023, Revised 27 October 2023, Accepted 1 November 2023, Available online 14 November 2023, Version of Record 12 December 2023.

E-mail: berend.vanwachem@ovgu.de

Highlights

• Flow analysis on simple unit cell and body-centred cubic packed beds by stereo particle image velocimetry experiments and immersed boundary method simulations.

• Experimental setup with suitable and simplified boundary conditions serves as excellent benchmark for simulations.

• Detailed comparison of numerical results with experimental results.

• Numerical and experimental studies show a good overall agreement for both packings and all flow velocities.

Abstract

The present paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation of the dispersion of the gaseous jet flow and co-flow for the simple unit cell (SUC) and body-centred cubic (BCC) configuration of particles in packed beds. The experimental setup is built in such a way that suitable and simplified boundary conditions are imposed for the corresponding numerical framework, so the simulations can be done under very similar conditions as the experiments. Accordingly, a porous plate is used for the co-flow to achieve the uniform velocity and the fully developed flow is ensured for the jet flow. The SUC and BCC particle beds consist of 3D-printed spheres, and the non-isotropy near the walls is mostly eliminated by placing half-spheres at the channel walls. The flow velocities are analysed directly at the exit of the particle bed for both beds over 36 pores for the SUC configuration and 60 pores for the BCC configuration, for particle Reynolds numbers of 200, 300, and 400. Stereo particle image velocimetry is experimentally arranged in such a way that the velocities over the entire region at the exit of the packed bed are obtained instantaneously. The numerical method consists of a state-of-the-art immersed boundary method with adaptive mesh refinement. The paper presents the pore jet structure and velocity field exiting from each pore for the SUC and BCC packed particle beds. The numerical and experimental studies show a good agreement for the SUC configuration for all flow velocities. For the BCC configuration, some differences can be observed in the pore jet flow structure between the simulations and the experiments, but the general flow velocity distribution shows a good overall agreement. The axial velocity is generally higher for the pores located near the centre of the packed bed than for the pores near the wall. In addition, the axial velocities are observed to increase near the peripheral pores of the packed bed. This behaviour is predominant for the BCC configuration as compared to the SUC configuration. The velocities near the peripheral pores can become even higher than those at the central pores for the BCC configuration. It is shown that both the experiments as well as the simulations can be used to study the complex fluid structures inside a packed bed reactor.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Uniform particle packing; Packed bed reactor; Stereo particle image velocimetry; Immersed boundary method

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