Flow Through Packed Bed

By:

Besa, Leo
Jequinto, Justin Ian

2 February 2018
School of Technology
Dennis Ong
Table of Contents

No. Title Page no.

1 Introduction 3

2 Objectives 4

3 Scope and limitations 5

4 Methodology 5

5 Results 6

6 Discussion 10

7 Conclusion 10

8 References 10
Introduction

Packed beds are normally columns filled with packing materials which allows
fluids to flow from one end to the other. They are equipment with large surface area
used for increasing contact between a liquid and gas. As the liquid passes through the
packing material it spreads out and the gas is able to react for a longer period. The
packing material is often design to optimize particular reactions. The packing material
usually used are Raschig rings, Berl saddle, and glass beads. Packed bed columns are
used in some chemical engineering unit operations such as extraction, distillation,
adsorption, and absorption.
The efficiency of packed beds is highly dependent on the flow of the material,
which is dependent on the arrangement of the packing material and on how the flow is
control e.g. direction of fluid flows. When packed bed has no flow, the net gravitational
force and buoyancy acts downwards. When flow is upward, the friction forces acts
opposite the gravitational forces. Pressure losses are caused by kinetic and viscous
energy losses as the fluid flows through the packed bed. Factors affecting energy
losses concerns about the fluid which are the rate of fluid flow, viscosity and fluid
density. The second is of the solid which are the arrangement of pacing, and size and
surface of packing materials.
The most successful approach that describe the flow of a fluid across an
assemblage of particles is the Ergun equation. This equation describes both laminar
and turbulent flows. The assumption includes no channeling in packed bed, particles
arranged at random, packing diameter is smaller than the column diameter, maximum
particle diameter is one-fifth of the column diameter, and the velocity, particle diameter,
and void fraction acts in bulk so we can use average values. Friction factor expressed
frictional force. Ergun equation is expressed as follows.

---------(1)

f​p​ is the friction factor for a packed bed called as modified friction factor.

Where ---------(2)
With = the pressure drop
L= the height of the bed
=the fluid viscosity
=the fluid viscosity
V​0​= the fluid superficial velocity
D​p​ =the particle diameter
= the density of the fluid
= sphericity of the particle.

Objective of the Study

General
1.) To perform the Flow through Packed bed experiment
Specific objectives
1.) Effect of different packing materials on pressure drop
2.) Determine the effect of the superficial mass velocity on pressure drop
3.) Verify Ergun Equation

Scope and Limitations

1.) The fluid used in the experiment is limited to water only

2.) The manometric fluid used was Mercury
3.) The packing materials are limited to Raschig rings, Berl saddle, and glass beads
4.) There is no channeling in the packed bed
5.) Particles are arranged at random
6.) Packing diameter is smaller than the column diameter
7.) Maximum particle diameter is one-fifth of the column diameter
8.) Velocity, particle diameter, and void fraction acts in bulk so average values can
be used for each.

Methodology
 The experiment was performed on an online virtual laboratory. The setup was
shown above under the ​Label Tab​. To configure the different variables to be
manipulated click on the ​Setup Tab​. The variables includes the length of the packed
bed, nominal diameter of the packed bed, packing material, process fluid, and
manometric fluid used. After configuring the desired values for the different variables
stated. Go on the ​Experiment Tab to run the experiment, then click the green button to
start the experiment which lets the pump be on and the red button to stop it. Rotate the
Main Valve in counterclockwise direction to increase the flow rate and clockwise to
decrease it. Take note of the change in the height of the limbs of the manometer for the
pressure drop. Click on the ​Add Current Readings ​button to record the data. Click on
the ​Observation button for the observation table and ​Experimental button ​for the
Experimental Table. Whenever you let the manometer overflow reset it by clicking the
Setup Tab and then Change the Manometer. Repeat the experiment with different setup
with respect to the objective set.
Results

Nominal column diameter: 1 inch

Actual column diameter: 2.66 cm
Density of fluid: 1000kg/m3
Viscosity of fluid: 0.85 cp
Void volume = 405.67 mL = 0.00040567 m3
Sphericity = 0.33
Specific Surface Area: 190 m2/m3
Volume of Bed: 5.55716 x10-4 m3
Void fraction: 0.73
Dp = 0.0258 m

Trial no. Rotameter H1 H2 ∆H ∆P m G

1 5.00 36.3 33.7 2.6 255.06 0.0833 149.897

2 10.00 40.2 29.8 10.4 1020.24 0.1667 299.973

3 15.00 46.7 23.3 23.4 2295.54 0.25 449.870

4 20.00 55.8 14.2 41.6 4080.96 0.33 593.828

5 25.00 67.5 2.5 65.0 6376.50 0.417 750.383

Table 1. Collected virtual lab data

Figure 1.​ Effect of Flow Rate to Pressure Drop
The graph shows a general trend of increasing pressure drop as the flow rate
increases. The 4mm glass beads has a sudden change in pressure with a small
increase in flow rate. The 25 mm Raschig rings and the 25 mm Berl saddles has similar
pressure drop as the flow rate increased though the 25 mm Berl saddles was higher of
the two.
Figure 2. Pressure drop, ∆P, with respect to superficial velocity, G in 25mm Raschig
rings
The graph shows that the change in superficial velocity G is directly proportional
to that of the pressure drop where in this case is increasing.
Figure 3.​ Friction factor, fp, with respect to the reciprocal of Reynold’s number
The graph shows that as the reciprocal of Nrep increases, the friction loss also
increases which means they are directly proportional.
Discussion

For this virtual experiment we chose the 25mm Raschig rings as the packing
material of our packed bed. The packed bed size was set constant at one meter length
and one inch diameter. The flow rate was increased in increments of five liters per
minute. Mercury was the manometric fluid used and water was the process fluid. The
dependent parameter was the pressure drop across the packed bed. The following are
the findings of the experiment. ​Figure 1 shows a general trend of increasing pressure
drop as the flow rate increases. The 4mm glass beads has a sudden change in
pressure with a small increase in flow rate. The 25 mm Raschig rings and the 25 mm
Berl saddles has similar pressure drop as the flow rate increased although the 25 mm
Berl saddles was higher of the two. This means that among the three packing materials,
the 25mm Raschig beads has the greatest pressure drop because before reaching the
flowrate of 0.1 kg/s the manometric fluid overflows. Figure 2 shows that the change in
superficial velocity G is directly proportional to that of the pressure drop where in this
case is increasing. ​Figure 3 shows that as the reciprocal of Nrep increases the friction
loss, represented by the friction factor, increases which means that they are directly
proportional. ​The Ergun equation expressed the friction factor as a function of modified
Reynold’s equation which in turn is directly proportional to superficial velocity. This
means that when there is high velocity, there is low friction losses.

Conclusion

The online virtual lab provided enough experience as to how the flow of the fluid
behaves through the packed bed. The only downside was that it was too ideal that no
external factors contribute to errors i.e. systematic and random errors which made the
experiment unrealistic. Nevertheless, it provided straightforward data which made us
focus on the parameters that are necessary to the experiment performed.

Reference

Packed Bed / Column | Its Plc

https://www.itoms.com/applications/packed-bed-column/