Modelling liquid redistribution in a packed bed

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of liquid spreading process in a packed bed. The volume of fluid (VOF) approach was applied to simulate the flow in a realistic porous region composed of 6mm Raschig rings. Modelling results were used to determine the probability density function (PDF) distribution of liquid velocity vector orientation angle which was then implemented into 2-fluid Euler-Euler multiphase model of packing column. The simulation showed that the model is capable to simulate adequately the liquid redistribution in a porous region being, however, much more efficient computationally than the VOF method.