Local Structure Effects on Pressure Drop in Slender Fixed Beds of Spheres

For slender fixed beds, the void fraction and flow properties are complex topics. Different factors can influence the local bed structure. For statistical analysis, 2800 fixed beds have been generated and the impact of friction factor and reactor-to-particle diameter ratio on the distribution has been shown. With particle-resolved computational fluid dynamics, all local structure effects are taken into account for the flow simulations. Pressure drop measurements and simulations showed that these effects can lead to areas with low flow resistance, leading to overestimated pressure drop by typical correlations up to 85 %.

Automated summary

In this study, 2800 fixed beds were analyzed to investigate the influence of friction factor and reactor-to-particle diameter ratio on the local bed structure. By using particle-resolved computational fluid dynamics, it was shown that these effects could lead to significant overestimation of pressure drop by up to 85%. The results highlight the complexity of void fraction and flow properties in slender fixed beds.