M5-Week 10: Flow Through Packed

beds
Porous medium
Solid: stationary
Liquid/gas: flow
Resistance

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Recall: Particle packing (shape, size, orientation,..)

Voidage
Sphericity
Mean size

Permeability:
Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

A measure of the ability of materials to transmit fluids

Packed Bed: Darcys law

Darcy's Law (1856) defines the flow in a

porous medium: (water through sand)
Q

v = P / L

where:
v is the superficial fluid velocity through the medium
A
(Q/A)
is the viscosity of the fluid
P is the applied pressure difference
L is the thickness of the medium
k is the permeability coefficient of a medium (unit:
area, m)
Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

or

Kozeny-Carmen Equation
Kozeny 1927, 1933, Carman, 1937
key point is to calculate the pressure drop from
fluid flow through the bed
Model packed bed as a bundle of pipes
(capillaries)

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Length of each pipe is KL:

k=tortuosity)

For laminar flow start with

Hagen-Poiseuille equation

Recall: Laminar flow in viscous pipe

The Hagen-Poiseuille Equation
V12
p2
V22
z1 1
Hp
z2 2
Ht hl
1
2g
2
2g
p1

p1

z1

p2

z2 hl

p
p

hl 1 z1 2 z2
1
2

Laminar pipe flow equations:

32lv
P
D2

PD 4
Q
128L

Relate l, v and d to pressure drop

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Kozeny-Carmen Equation

Consider the packed bed to be equivalent to many

tubes (equivalent diameters and lengths)
Consider voidage (e), shape of particles (y)

Result:
Pfr/L = 150(1-e) 2/e3 (Ug)/(ydv)2
Re = rUg(y dv)/ < 20)

Mono-sized particles: dv
For a size distribution, use specific surface mean
Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Sensitivity to parameters

P proportional to U (laminar flow)

P inversely proportional to dv2
How does P vary with voidage ?

Pfr/L=150(1-e) 2/ e3 (Ug)/(y dv)2

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Turbulent Flow:
Blake-Plummer Equation

For turbulent flow (high Reynolds numbers)

the Blake-Plummer (empirical) equation is:

Pfr/L=1.75(1-e)/e3 rUg2/(ydv)
P proportional to Ug2
P inversely proportional to dv

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Ergun Equation

Combine equations Kozeny-Carman and Blake-Plummer

to cover the whole range of Reynolds numbers:
Ergun equation (1952)

Pfr/L=150(1-e)2/e3(Ug )/(y dv)2 + 1.75(1-e)/e3 rUg2/(ydv)

Viscous losses

Turbulent losses

Re < 20, viscous loss term dominates

Re > 1000, Turbulent loss term dominates

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Ergun Equation

Friction factor: ff = 150 /Re +1.75

ff = P dv e3/r (1-e) Ug2 L ,

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Re = dvUg r/ (1-e)

Use the Ergun Equation for all packed bed pressure drop
calculations

Packed Bed:
Darcys law
Kozeny-Carmen
Equation

Blake-Plummer
Equation

Ergun Equation

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Example

1.
2.

A packed bed of solid particles occupies a 1-m long

cylinder of cross-section 0.04 m2, The mass of
particles in the bed is 50 kg, the surface-volume
mean diameter of particles is 1 mm, A liquid flows
upwards through the bed,
Calculate the voidage e of the bed,
When the volume rate of liquid is 1.44 m3/h,
Calculate the pressure drop of the bed.

dv = 1 mm
= 0.002 Pa.s
y 1
Q = 1.44m3/h,
Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

rP = 2500 kg/m3
r = 850 kg/m3
A: 0.04 m2
L = 1m

Flow Through Packed beds:

applications
Filtration
Gas/solid reactors
Catalytic reactors
Ion-exchange/adsorption
Flow through soils, waste dumps
Oil reservoir engineering,
Packed column/towers

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Example: Filtration

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Low velocity flow through,

particles be retained by the filter medium
A continuous deposition of solids
Resistance to flow increase through the
operation
Pressure drop: size, voidage

Filtration

Incompressible cake

( Particles form cake with constant voidage)

Pfr/L= rc Ug

(From Ergun equation)

* Here V is the volume of filtrate (liquid) passed in a time t

The volume ratio of cake formed by the passage of unit volume of filtrate:

Instantaneous Volumetric flow rate dV/dt at time t:

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

 Including the resistance of the filter medium

Note: here H is the length of the packed bed (cake), same as L

Normally: Filter medium resistance rm is expressed as the equivalent thickness of the cake Heq

Veq is the volume of the filtrate that must pass in order to create a cake of thickness Heq

Time-volume relation:
Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Washing the cake

Removal of filtrate during washing of the filter cake

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Compressible cake:

(volidage changes, cake resistance increases)

Appling Ergun Eq. laminar flow

Ps: pressure difference

Analysis of the pressure drop-flow relationship for a compressible cake

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

In practice: the pressure/resistance relation should be found in experiments

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Application: Ion-exchange Column

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Ion-exchangeable species (resin, etc)

Liquid fed from the top, ion-exchange
occurs
Purification/environmental purpose

Application: Packed column/towers

Shaped particles packed in a column

Used for bring two phases in contact with oneanother (G-L, L-L systems, etc.)
Characteristics:
generally the size of packing elements in
columns large, Re large, turbulent
Packing elements have large internal surfaces,
high flow resistance

Fluid/Particle
Interactions:

Summary of Packed Beds

Features of packed beds
Ergun equation: relationship between
pressure drop and flow rate
Application examples

Fluid/Particle
Interactions: