Effects of geometrical characteristics on Dry Pressure Drop of the Packed Columns using CFD Analysis

Structured packings, have found great applications in industries, because of lower pressure drop and higher capacity and efficiency in comparison with random packings and trays. Dry pressure drop is one of the most important parameters in design of structured packed columns. Type of packing and geometrical characteristics such as specific surface area, dimensions and angle of channels and porosity are among the important parameters affecting pressure drop. In the present work, effect of these parameters on pressure drop has been investigated using a computational fluid dynamics approach. For solving the equations, a commercial CFD package, Fluent 6, was used. The results have been compared with experimental data as well as Bravo model, and show good agreement. The average relative errors obtained are between 3.3% and 16.1%. From the results it is shown that pressure drop decreases with decreasing specific surface area of the packing, increasing bed porosity, increasing the channel angle with respect to vertical, and increasing the channel dimensions. By increasing the channel angle from 45° to 60°, pressure drop decreases by 59.6%. Increasing the bed porosity from 62% to 98% results in 40% decrease in pressure drop. For Flexipak structured packings, a decrease of 49% in specific surface area results in 57.6% decrease in pressure drop.

کلیدواژه ها:

Structured packings ، Packed columns ، Pressure drop ، Computational Fluid Dynamics ، CFD