Experimental investigation and CFD simulation of turbulence effect on hydrodynamic and masstransfer in a packed bed airlift internal loop reactor

International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, Volume 38, Issue 4, April 2011, Pages 518-524

Experimental investigation and CFD simulation of turbulence effect on hydrodynamic and masstransfer in a packed bed airlift internal loop reactor

Mostafa Keshavarz Moraveji (a), Baharak Sajjadi (a), Mahboubeh Jafarkhani (a), Reza Davarnejad (a)

m-moraveji@araku.ac.ir

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Arak University, Arak 38156-8-8349, Iran

Abstract

Describes experimental investigation and its simulation using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of hydrodynamic and mass transfer for two phase bubbly flow in a split cylindrical airlift reactor.

Turbulence influences on mass transfer and hydrodynamic parameters were considered when packing was installed in the riser zone. CFD was also able to simulate hydrodynamic and mass transfer in a bubbly flow. Packing existence in an airlift reactor increased gas hold-up and decreased liquid velocity. The lower velocity increased the delay time (residence time), which increased the mass transfer. Since there is random and erratic movement of liquid bulk layers and dynamic fluctuations in a packed bed airlift reactor so, Reynolds number increased and resulted in mass and momentum transfer enhancement.

 Full Text Source (Subscription or Fee): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735193310003258