Pressure drop through a fixed bed of particles with disc promoter

Abstract

In the present work, Hagen-Poiseuille’s equation for laminar flow through a circular pipe has been used to formulate fixed/packed bed pressure drop equations by introducing characteristics of the bed and the porous medium. The values of constant of the modified Hagen-Poiseuille’s equation have been obtained using experimental data of fixed bed pressure drop collected with the system variables. Two equations: one for unpromoted bed and another for the case of bed with disc promoters, have been proposed to predict fixed bed pressure drop in the respective cases. The experimental data of bed pressure drop collected with system variables such as initial static bed height, bed material of different sizes and densities and different promoter blockage volume have been used in the investigation. The predicted values of fixed bed pressure drops using developed correlations have been found to agree fairly well with the corresponding experimental ones. the conclusion has also been derived for the effect of promoter parameter on packed bed pressure drops.