Issue
Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering,
Vol.25, No.3, 395-401, 2008
CFD modeling of the effect of absorbent size on absorption performance of a packed bed column
This paper reports a study on the ability of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling for analyzing the fluid flow hydrodynamics and absorption in a packed bed column. The water absorption by silica gel absorbents in an experimental packed bed was investigated, and the absorption performance of two different sizes of absorbent was studied. A series of experiments were carried out for five setups which are different in the weight ratio of the employed big to small absorbents. The CFD modeling was carried out for all five experimental setups. The predicted results show that by more replacing of the big absorbents with the small ones the water absorption increased. On the other hand, a greater pressure drop was observed as more small absorbents were used. The predicted absorption rates were compared with the measured values and on average a consistency within 11.6% was observed.