Numerical study on flow and heat transfer characteristics in structured packed bed

Abstract

ANSYS software is introduced to reproduce the in-line and staggered sphere packed bed model. To investigate the influence of model on the heat transfer and flow characteristics in the high temperature packed bed, numerical simulations of pore-level was used to numerically appreciate the changes of pressure drop, temperature and velocity. The simulation values qualitatively agree with the experimental result. The results show that the pressure drop in high temperature packed bed increases significantly. The pressure drop increases about 3200 Pa when the inlet velocity is 0.33-0.73 m/s. The model has significant influence on the average temperature of solid and gas phases. Compared with the in-line arrangement, the heat wave transfer is slower and the temperature is slightly higher by 20 K in the staggered model. The average velocity in the structured packed bed increases and decreases periodically. In staggered model, the velocity disturbance is more significant. These findings are helpful for understanding transport phenomena in packed beds as well as the design of high efficiency reactors.