Numerical calculation with experimental validation of pressure drop in a fixed-bed reactor filled with the porous elements

To study flow dynamics in a fixed-bed reactor, experiment and numerical simulation are used. In this work, the flow dynamics in a fixed-bed reactor filled with porous particles was simulated. For verification, experimental data were used. Porous particles were prepared from grains with sizes from 0.2 to 2.0 mm. Porous particles made by sintering grains in a muffle furnace. The study of pressure drop was performed in the velocity range up to 3 m/s. Numerical calculation was performed for a realistic computational domain obtained by RBD-algorithm (rigid body dynamics). It was found that if the pore size is less than 0.5 mm, then the flow through the porous medium of particles is minimal; if the pore size is larger than 0.5 mm, then there is a flow through the porous elements of the fixed-bed reactor. To take into account the porosity of the particles, gamma correlation coefficient was proposed for the Ergun equation.