Hydrodynamics of countercurrent flows in a structured packed column: effects of initial wetting and dynamic contact angle

TL;DR

This study investigates how dynamic contact angles and initial wetting conditions affect interfacial area and hydrodynamics in a structured packed column using VOF simulations, revealing nuanced impacts on mass transfer efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces the use of dynamic contact angle to explore wetting hysteresis effects in packed columns, highlighting differences from static contact angle assumptions.

Findings

DCA significantly influences interfacial area for NaOH solution.

Wetting hysteresis effects vary with initial wetting conditions and solvent properties.

Interfacial area does not reach steady state under certain conditions.

Abstract

Computational countercurrent flow investigation in the structured packed column is a multiscale problem. Multiphase flow studies using volume of fluid (VOF) method in the representative elementary unit (REU) of the packed column can insight into the local hydrodynamics such as interfacial area, film thickness, etc. The interfacial area dictates the mass transfer in absorption process and thereby overall efficiency of column. Impacts of solvent's physical properties, liquid loads and static contact angle (SCA) on the interfacial area were examined earlier. In the present study, the dynamic contact angle (DCA) was used to explore the impact of contact angle hysteresis on the interfacial area. DCA has more pronounced impact on the interfacial area (10%) for aqueous solvent of 0.10M Sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The interfacial area shows undulation and does not achieve the pseudo-steady state. In contrary, the interfacial area gets a net pseudo-steady value for the aqueous solvent having 40% monoethanolamine (MEA) by weight. The wetting hysteresis was also explored via simulations conducted with initially dry and wetted sheets. For 0.10M NaOH aqueous solvent, the initially wetted sheets lead to slightly higher value of the interfacial area (10%) as compared to the initially dry sheets at the same liquid load and DCA. As expected, wetting hysteresis reduces with increasing liquid loads. On the other hand, wetting hysteresis is not significant for 40% MEA aqueous solvent which might be lower surface tension and higher viscosity. Overall, the effect of the dynamic contact angle is not pronounced as compared to those found in a flat surface.