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Pulse Flow in Solid Foam Packed Reactors: Analysis of Morphology and Key Characteristics

Zalucky, J.; Claußnitzer, T.; Schubert, M.; Lange, R.; Hampel, U.

In this paper, results of an experimental study on pulsing two-phase flow in SiSiC solid foam packed reactors are presented. Thereby, the pulse characteristics in a wide range of water and air fluxes at different axial positions for foams with pore densities of 20, 30, and 45 ppi were investigated using ultrafast X-ray computed tomography. Morphologically, discs, curtains and bowls were encountered as basic pulse shapes, which occurred randomly. The key characteristics, i.e. frequency, velocity and volume of pulses as well as peak and time-averaged liquid holdup, have been extracted by applying a dynamic threshold criterion to time-variant liquid holdup profiles. The key properties strongly depend on axial position, pore density and fluid fluxes and can be distinguished in a local and global mode of pulsing. In the local mode, which evolves close to the regime transition boundary, pulses with small liquid volumes move slowly but frequently through the solid foam packed reactor. In the global mode, significantly faster pulses with large liquid volumes were encountered, which cover most of the reactor cross-section but occur less frequent. Compared to literature data for conventional random packings, the pulse frequency was in a similar range while both pulse velocity and liquid content largely exceeded their counterparts. Phenomenologically, the pore occlusion model was found to be more applicable than the concepts based on flow stability.

Keywords: pulse flow; solid foam packing; pulse properties; ultrafast X-ray computed tomography; pore occlusion model; liquid holdup

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23721
Publ.-Id: 23721