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

TL;DR

This study combines experimental and numerical methods to analyze gas flow through structured packed beds, revealing flow patterns and velocity distributions that enhance understanding of packed bed reactors.

Contribution

It introduces a combined experimental and numerical approach to investigate flow dynamics in structured packed beds, specifically comparing SUC and BCC configurations.

Findings

Good agreement between experiments and simulations for SUC beds.

Flow velocity varies with position, higher near the center and periphery.

BCC configuration shows more complex flow behavior.

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 centered 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. The SUC and BCC particle beds consist of 3D-printed spheres. The flow velocities are analysed directly at the exit of the particle bed, for both beds for particle Reynolds numbers of 200, 300, and 400. Stereo particle image velocimetry (SPIV) 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 IBM with AMR. The paper presents the pore jet structure and velocity field exiting 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. It is shown that both the experiments and the simulations can be used to study the complex fluid structures inside a packed bed reactor.