Scaling Effect on Flow Characteristics of a Structured Packed Bed Using CFD Method

Numerical simulations were taken on single phase flow in a structured packed bed on different scaling using CFD modeling.The point contact between adjacent spheres was simplified with a new grid-generation method,and over 11 layers of spheres were calculated,141 particles in all,which represents flow characteristics of a large scale packed bed in the real system.The scaling effect on the flow characteristics and pressure drop was investigated,and the resistance formulas on different scales were obtained.The mechanism of boundary effect on flow characteristics of a small channel was studied and the scope of the inlet/outlet effect on resistance characteristics is evaluated by the pressure drop on axial direction.