Numerical Study of Pressure Loss in Ceramic Bed of Thermal Flow Reversal Reactor

Abstract

This paper describes the use of a commercial CFD code, FLUENT, to model fluid flow in thermal flow reversal reactor (TFRR) for lean methane oxidation. A two dimensional model is used. Pressure loss in ceramic bed of TFRR was focused on, and the effects of main factors are presented. The results show that the contours of static pressure in ceramic bed are slightly inclined due to the gradually variation distribution of velocity; the pressure field in distributing header is more uniform than that of collecting header; the ratio of header’s height to ceramic length influences the pressure loss most and with the increase of the ratio the pressure loss of TFRR decreased dramatically; the pressure loss increased with the increase of volume flow rate. The structure of headers is the most important factor which affects the pressure loss of TFRR.