Pressure Drop in Randomly Packed Absorption Tower in Transient Flow Regime

In this work computational fluid dynamics is used to describe the fluid flow across a randomly packed absorption tower. The CFD simulation method is employed on a packed tower that is packed with 1cm Raschig rings. Tower is 175cm in height. Air flow rate range was 1.5 to 5 m/s. The measured pressure drops were in 1.5 to 12 Pascal per height of tower in meter. The Klerk’s approach is examined to define the influence of confining walls on pressure drop in packed areas. It is concluded that CFD model that uses the Klerk’s definition of radial porosity distribution is a successful way for pressure drop prediction in packed beds. Model prediction of dry pressure drop is about 4% lower than the experimental measurements. Ergun’s pressure drop prediction is compared with that of Reichelt’s using averaged and distributed porosity profiles. In both methods Ergun’s approach in comparison with Reichelt’s approach has %6 lesser error in dry pressure drop prediction.