Velocity Profile in Fixed Beds: A Study on the Representativeness of the Experimental Measurement of Downstream Flow Characteristics

Abstract

Although considerable progress has been made in the development of experimental techniques for investigating velocity distribution inside a fixed bed, these techniques were limited to special cases. Consequently, the velocity distribution is normally measured at downstream of the fixed bed and then this measurement is considered to be representative for the flow inside the bed. To evaluate the representativeness of this technique, this work presents a study of the change in the flow characteristics, starting from the boundary of the fixed bed within the pipe to a downstream position where the experimental measurement is taken, by using simulations based on computational fluid dynamics methods.

Keywords:

• CFD
• Fixed bed
• Flow characteristic
• Velocity profile