Heat Transfer in a Packed-Bed Cylindrical Reactor of Elliptic Cross Section: Mathematical Modeling and Simulation

Materials with Complex Behaviour II
Advanced Structured Materials, 2012, Volume 16, Part 2, 549-571
Heat Transfer in a Packed-Bed Cylindrical Reactor of Elliptic Cross Section: Mathematical Modeling and Simulation
Antonio Gilson Barbosa de Lima, Laércio Gomes de Oliveira and Wagner Celso Paiva Barbosa de Lima
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center of Science and Technology, Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), PO Box 10069, Campina Grande-PB, 58429-900 Brazil
Department of Chemical Engineering, Center of Science and Technology, Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), PO Box 10057, Campina Grande-PB, 58429-900 Brazil
Abstract
Packed-bed reactors with heated or cooled walls are used to carry out solid–gas reactions in many engineering applications. The design of a fixed bed reactor requires extensive knowledge of heat transfer characteristics within the equipment. In this work, authors predict the steady-state three-dimensional heat transfer inside a packed-bed elliptic cylindrical reactor including chemical reaction term.
The energy conservation equation was discretized by using finite-volume method. Effects of the fluid-wall heat transfer coefficient, inlet reactant fluid concentration, inlet fluid temperature, and pre-exponential factor of the Arrhenius equation on the temperature profiles within the reactor are presented. Authors validate the model by comparing numerical results of the heat transfer obtained for a circular cylindrical reactor with experimental data.
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