TPMS Contactors Designed with Imprinted Porosity: Numerical Evaluation of Momentum and Energy Transport

Abstract

Structured packings in reactors and separation processes have an extensive trait for process intensification such as enhancement in mass and heat transport without having any substantial pressure drop and can now successfully be produced by using additive manufacturing methods such as 3D printing. Structured packings manufactured with triply periodical minimum surfaces (TPMS) have good mixing properties and enhanced thermal transport, but they do not have high surface areas. In this work, we report a new type of hybrid TPMS structure with high surface area while keeping good mixing properties. The new shapes are made by generating solids on the boundaries of a 2D tessellation of polygons over the TPMS surface. The new shapes have a higher surface area than a TPMS and at the same time, a higher porosity. We have evaluated the pressure drop and heat transfer properties of such structures for Reynolds numbers 1-200 in 10 different solids. The results indicate that pressure drop is dominated by porosity. Heat transfer properties however depend also on available surface area and thus are improved in the porous structures.