Chemical Engineering Journal 228 (2013) 1040–1049

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Chemical Engineering Journal

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CFD analysis of liquid phase flow in a rotating packed bed reactor

Xin Shi a, Yang Xiang a, Li-Xiong Wen a,⇑, Jian-Feng Chen a,b
a
State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
b
Research Center of the Ministry of Education for High Gravity Engineering and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

 A 2D multiphase model (VOF) was In this work, a 2D CFD computational framework was developed to study the liquid phase flow patterns
developed to simulate the liquid flow in rotating packed bed (RPB) reactors. The effects of rotating speed and structure of packings on the veloc-
within RPB. ity, size distribution and residence time of the liquid phase were investigated numerically. This work
 The interface between gas–liquid could provide an improved understanding of the flow behaviors within RPB reactors.
phases in RPB was clearly captured by
simulation.
 Increasing rotating speed reduced
liquid droplet size to enhance
interface update.
 The maldistribution of liquid in RPB
was weakened at high rotating
speeds.
 Static baffles added another end liquid
effect to further intensify mass inlet
transfer process.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Rotating packed bed (RPB) reactors can greatly intensify the gas–liquid mass transfer efficiency by their
Received 16 November 2012 strong centrifugal acceleration. However, due to the complex structure of packing in RPB, it is extremely
Received in revised form 16 May 2013 difficult to acquire information about the flow patterns and mixing behaviors inside the reactor by exper-
Accepted 18 May 2013
iments. In this study, by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), a two-dimensional computational
Available online 30 May 2013
framework of RPB was developed to investigate the liquid phase flow within RPB numerically. The vol-
ume of fluid (VOF) multiphase model, sliding model (SM) and the Reynolds stress model (RSM), as imple-
Keywords:
mented in FLUENT solver, were used to compute the velocity fields and to capture the interface between
Rotating packed bed (RPB)
CFD
gas–liquid phases in RPB. The CFD simulations showed that once the liquid was injected into the packing
Flow patterns area, it would be quickly split and synchronized with the motion of the rotating packing. The average
Volume of fluid (VOF) liquid droplet diameter at high rotating speeds was significantly smaller than that at low rotating speeds,
and the droplet diameter in the RPB with static baffles was smaller than that without baffles. The mal-
distribution of liquid in local areas of the packing could be weakened by increasing rotating speeds. In
addition, the increase of rotating speed and inlet velocity of liquid could decrease the mean residence
time (MRT) of liquid flow within RPB reactors.
Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Process intensification (PI) is playing a more and more important
role on chemical industrial systems. As one of the most efficient PI
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: P.O. Box 35, Beijing University of Chemical
Technology, Beijing 100029, China. Tel.: +86 10 64443614; fax: +86 10 64434784.
E-mail address: wenlx@mail.buct.edu.cn (L.-X. Wen).
technologies, rotating packed bed (RPB) reactors can greatly inten-
sify the gas–liquid mass transfer efficiency by strong centrifugal
acceleration. Since the invention of RPB by Ramshaw [1], it has been
widely applied in many chemical processes, such as absorption [2],
distillation [3], ozone oxidation [4] and synthesis of nanoparticles
[5]. Compared to other conventional chemical industrial reactors,
such as packed column, RPB can remarkably reduce the capital
and operating cost, device size and environmental impact [6].

1385-8947/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2013.05.081
 X. Shi et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 228 (2013) 1040–1049
Nomenclature
Fi dimensionless concentration of tracer
r radius (mm)
^
n surface normal
t mean residence time
u liquid velocity (m/s)
ui velocity vector
u0i turbulent fluctuation of fluid velocity in direction ‘‘i’’
uj velocity vector
u0j turbulent fluctuation of fluid velocity in direction ‘‘j’’
Greek letters
a volume fraction
A sketch of a typical RPB for gas–liquid countercurrent flow is
shown in Fig. 1. It illustrates that liquid streams in RPB are sprayed
onto the inner packing region from a (or several) stationary distrib-
utor, and then split continuously by the rapidly rotating packing to
form thin films and tiny droplets along the packing path. Conse-
quently, the surface of liquid phase will be updated constantly to
enhance the gas–liquid mass transfer. Therefore, deep understand-
ing of the flow behaviors and mixing processes within RPB is
essential for its design, optimization, and scaling up. Many exper-
imental investigations have been performed to study the charac-
teristics of fluid flow within a RPB. By utilizing a camera, Burns
and Ramshaw [7] reported that, under high centrifugal accelera-
tion, the liquid flow in packing area was in the forms of film flow,
droplet flow and pore flow depending on various operating condi-
tions. Besides, a spiral of liquid via the packing area and the severe
liquid maldistribution were also visualized. To observe the liquid
flow in RPB, Guo et al. [8] mounted a camera on the rotor, so that
the camera could rotate with the rotor synchronously during oper-
ating. With the help of an image analyzer, the thickness of liquid
film on the packing was obtained. In addition, they mounted two
electro-conductivity sensors at both inner and outer peripheries
of packing to measure the pulse signal of tracer (saturated NaCl
aqueous solution). It was found that the mean residence time
(MRT) of liquid in a RPB decreased with the increase of liquid flow
rate and rotating speed. However, the flying droplets in the inter-
spaces of packing may not be detected by conductivity [7], which
may introduce measurement error, and the stability of the results
Fig. 1. Structure scheme of a typical RPB reactor (1. Gas inlet; 2. Gas outlet; 3.
Liquid inlet; 4. Liquid outlet; 5. Seal; 6. Packing; 7. Rotating shaft; 8. Hull; 9. Liquid
distributor).
1041
c surface tension coefficient
j the curvature of the interface
l viscosity (mPa s)
q fluid density (kg/m3)
x angular velocity (rad/s)
Subscripts
g gas phase
l liquid phase
q symbolizes phase q
is difficult to be ensured. Many studies showed that a large part of
the overall mass transfer occurs within the part of packing close to
the inner edge of the rotor, i.e., the so-called end effect [9,10].
Therefore, the mass transfer ability is not linearly related to the ra-
dial distance in RPB. To further improve the mass transfer perfor-
mance, some researches on the optimization of RPB reactors have
been conducted. Sung and Chen [11] suggested that the gas-side
mass transfer coefficient for the bed with baffles was higher than
that for a bed without baffles. Luo et al. [12] found that the effec-
tive interfacial area and liquid-side mass transfer coefficient are
larger in the RPB with static baffles than that in the conventional
rotors. The pressure drop in RPB is usually higher than that in con-
ventional reactors [13–15], suggesting possible higher energy con-
sumption in RPB. However, the reaction efficiency in RPB is
significantly higher as well; therefore, the RPB reactor may require
lower energy consumption in many cases.
However, experimental measurements on RPB usually require
some special equipments and reactor structure, and are generally
time-consuming and costly. In addition, due to the complex and
rotating packing in RPB, it is extremely difficult to acquire exhaus-
tive information about the flow patterns through experimental ap-
proaches. In recent years, advances in modern computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) technologies and high-performance computers al-
lowed the CFD method to become a powerful tool for analyzing the
flow patterns, phase distribution and mass transfer processes in
numerous reactors [16–19]. As yet, only a few numerical models,
by solving volume averaged Navier–Stokes equations, have been
published for simulating the fluid behaviors in RPB. Hugo and Lar-
achi [20] modeled the 3D unsteady-state turbulent rotating single
gas phase flows in RPB, and the effects of gas feed entrance on the
gas maldistribution were analyzed. Besides, the numerical results
of dry pressure drops of gas phase were validated for three RPB de-
signs and showed a good agreement. Yang et al. [21] developed
both 2D and 3D models to predict the velocity of single liquid
phase flow at different rotating speeds. The calculated results of
pressure drop of gas phase in a dry bed were in satisfactory agree-
ment with experimental data. However, in the previous CFD mod-
eling of RPB reactors, the liquid flow in packing area was usually
considered as a single phase flow, and the gas phase in the inter-
spaces between the packing was neglected, which is inconsistent
with the actual existing forms of liquid phase, such as film flow,
droplet flow and pore flow. Overall, the understanding of liquid
flow behaviors in RPB is still far from satisfactory.
Recently, numerical studies confirmed that the volume of fluid
(VOF) approach is well suited for tracking the interface between
gas–liquid in multiphase flows, and showed that the VOF model
can yield good predictions [22,23]. Therefore, in this study, the
VOF method combined with sliding model (SM) and the Reynolds
1042 X. Shi et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 228 (2013) 1040–1049
stress model (RSM) was used to simulate the velocity field and li-
quid volume fraction distributions in the rotating packing area. The
main objective of this work is to establish a numerical method
based on CFD technique to aid the analysis of flow patterns of
RPB. A two-dimensional computational framework of RPB reactor
was developed and run with a preprocessor software (Gambit)
and a commercial CFD package (FLUENT), respectively. In addition,
the maldistribution of liquid, the flow patterns of liquid in the RPB
with static baffles and residence time distribution (RTD) of liquid
in the packing area were analyzed. The numerical results can pro-
vide an improved understanding on the transient behaviors of flow
patterns within RPB.
2. CFD simulations
2.1. Geometrical model and mesh generation
Due to the complexity of packing structure within RPB reactors
and the restriction of computer performance at present, three
dimensional CFD simulations of RPB reactor with multiphase flow
are still difficult to achieve. Therefore, it is necessary to simplify
the packing structure according to the following assumptions
[8,21]. The packing area is generally composed of multi-layer wire
mesh packing in the shape of concentric annulus, and the structure
of the wire mesh packing consists of latitude and longitude wires.
In general, liquid flows pass these wires and form thin films on the
wire surface. And the forms of fluid flow in both latitude and lon-
gitude directions are supposed to be similar at the same location.
Therefore, the multi-layer wire mesh packing is assumed to be
composed of numerous straight wires parallel to the rotor axis.
However, the effects of the wires in the concentric direction on
the liquid flow have not been simulated in this work, mainly be-
1
2 4
80 mm
Fig. 2. (a) The wires in concentric and coaxial directions; and (b) 2D physical model diagram of RPB and the partial schematic illustration of the packing arrangement
(1. Packing area; 2. Cavity Area; 3. Center distance in circumferential direction; 4. Center distance in radial direction).
cause that those wires would form a series of closed concentric cir-
cles in the two dimensional mesh model and the liquid flow would
not be able to develop and flow across the closed circles. In addi-
tion, when all wires in the packing are rotating (see Fig. 2a), the
space occupied by the wires in the concentric direction could be
considered relatively fixed and kept within the same plane perpen-
dicular to the axis. However, every wire in the coaxial direction
(the wires considered in this work) would rotate around the axis
and move across the space of a cylinder, which is perpendicular
to the liquid flow; therefore, the liquid streams should be easy to
be captured by the wires in the coaxial direction, due to the huge
number of such wires. On the other hand, since the liquid flow en-
tered the packing along the radial direction and lacked acceleration
in the axial direction, the wires in the concentric direction might
have fewer chances to capture the liquid flow. Therefore, the effect
of the wires in the concentric direction on the liquid flow might be
less significant as compared to that caused by the wires in the
coaxial direction, though such difference is extremely difficult to
be distinguished and there is little information at present on this
issue. Finally, according to the geometrical characteristics of wire
mesh packing, the cross-sectional area of 0.25 mm2 of a single wire
is then simplified to a square with 0.5 mm in the two dimensional
physical model. Detailed dimensions of the RPB model and the
arrangement of simplified packing for this study are presented in
Fig. 2b. There are 21 concentric layers of simplified packing in total.
The center distance between two adjacent layers of packing in ra-
dial direction, and the center distance between two adjacent pack-
ing wires (squares) in the circumferential direction are both
1.5 mm. In this work, the geometry of the computational domain
was generated in Gambit, a grid-generation tool, based on the 2D
geometry created with AutoCAD code, and meshed in a structured
manner. All the surface cells were quadrilateral with the side
length of 0.1 mm (see Fig. 3).
coaxial
V
concentric
(a)
3
liquid
inlet
(b)
 X. Shi et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 228 (2013) 1040–1049 1043

Fig. 3. Two dimensional meshed geometry of RPB.

2.2. Mathematical model The surface tension is a surface force, which is converted into
the volume force FV (in Eq. (2)) by the continuum surface force
Based on the observed dynamic behaviors of liquid phase in RPB (CSF) model proposed by Brackbill et al. [25] FV can be written as:
reactors, the flow was assumed to be two phases of gas–liquid, un-
steady and incompressible in this simulation. The VOF model, pro-
qK n^
FV ¼ c ð6Þ
posed by Hirt and Nichols [24], is based on the description of the 0:5ðql þ qg Þ
volumetric fraction of each phase in grid cell. In addition, VOF where c is the surface tension coefficient and j is the curvature of
model is generally used to compute a time-dependent solution the interface, which is defined as:
and relies on the fact that two or more fluids (or phases) are not
interpenetrating. The mass conservation equation for the volume K ¼rn
^ ð7Þ
fraction function in the computational domain can be expressed
where n ^ ¼ n=jnjÞ and n ¼ r  aq .
^ is the surface normal ðn
as follows:
One important step of a CFD simulation is the selection of a suit-
@ðaq qq Þ able turbulence model. The flow field in RPB reactor, in the present
v q Þ ¼ 0 with q ¼ g or l
þ r  ðaq qq ~ ð1Þ work, was calculated by solving the Navier–Stokes equation to-
@t
gether with the Reynolds stress model (RSM) that accounted for
where subscripts l and g represent the liquid and gas phases, turbulent effects. RSM, a second-moment closure, is more adapted
respectively, t is the time, and aq is the volume fraction for phase to swirling flows (non-isotropic) than the k–e turbulence model
q. The corresponding momentum balance equation for the two- and its variants, and it has greater potential to give accurate pre-
phase flow is shown as: dictions for complex flows [26]. The transport equation for the
@    Reynolds stresses can be expressed as follows [27]:
v Þ þ r  ðq~
ðq~ v~
v Þ ¼ rp þ r  l r~
v þ~
vT þ Fv ð2Þ    
@t
@ qu0i u0j @ quk u0i u0j @ h 0 0 0 i
VOF solves a single set of conservation and momentum equations þ ¼ qui uj uk þ p0 u0i dkj þ p0 u0j dik
@t @xk @xk
throughout the domain, and the resulting velocity field is shared |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
C ij DT;ij
among the phases. The mixture fluid properties, such as density q
and dynamic viscosity l, are shared by the volume fraction of the @ @  0 0 @uj @ui
þ l ui uj  q u0i u0k þ u0j u0k
different phases and represent volume-averaged values: @xk @xk @xk @xk
|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
X DL;ij Pij
q¼ aq qq ð3Þ  0 @u0 
  @u
0 @x i þ @x
j
X  qb g i uj h þ g j ui h þ P
0 0 j i
l¼ a q lq ð4Þ |fflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflffl}
|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} Uij
Gij
In addition, the volume fraction of each fluid in each computational  
@u0i @u0j
cell is tracked throughout the domain, and will be computed based  2l  2qXk u0j u0m eikm þ u0i u0m ejkm ð8Þ
on the following constraint: @xk @xk |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
|fflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
eij F ij
X
n
aq ¼ 1 ð5Þ where Cij is convection term, DT,ij is turbulent diffusion, DL,ij is
q¼1
molecular diffusion, Pij is stress production, Uij is pressure strain,
When the computational cell is full of the qth fluid, aq equals to one; eij is dissipation, and Fij is production term by system rotation.
and in reverse aq equals to zero. The interface between the qth fluid
and one or more other fluids can be found in the cells with 2.3. CFD simulation of residence time
0 < aq < 1. In the VOF model, the treatment of liquid interface is
accomplished through the Geometric-Reconstruction scheme that Residence time of liquid phase is a significant operating param-
is based on the piece linear interface calculation (PLIC) method, eter for the study of mass transfer in RPB reactor. For example, the
and the model stability is improved by the implicit body force liquid holdup, which reflects the bed characteristics of RPB reactor,
formulation. can be calculated by the residence time distribution. In the present
1044 X. Shi et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 228 (2013) 1040–1049

study, CFD modeling was used to conduct the virtual tracer exper-
iments to determine residence time based on the following proce-
dure. After the flow reached ‘‘steady state’’ (the liquid flux no
longer changed sharply at the outlet), the tracer was injected in a
pulse lasting 0.01 s at the inlet with a volume fraction of 1. The li-
quid phase then entered the flow field immediately after the tracer
has been injected to ensure that the injected tracer would not af-
fect the flow in RPB. Here the physical properties and the initial
conditions of the tracer were considered to be similar to the liquid
phase (water). In VOF model, air was the primary phase; while
water and tracer were both secondary phase, which can be easily
modeled in FLUENT. The volume fraction of tracer against time at
the outer periphery of packing was then accurately monitored to
produce the RTD curve for the system. Finally, the mean residence
time t can be obtained from the RTD curve:
P
t ¼ Pti F i ð9Þ
Fi
ulations with a time step size at 103, 5  104, 104 and
5  105 s, respectively, were tested to check the effect of time-
step size on the results. At bigger time step sizes (103 or
5  104), the calculation process was terminated after a few num-
ber of time steps, due to the global courant number less than 250.
At smaller time step sizes (104 or 5  105 s), it was found that
the CFD results (the droplet size and the distribution) were mostly
unchanged and the computational process was performed
smoothly. Therefore, the time step size of 104 s was selected in
this work to conduct the simulations. Mesh independence explora-
tions were also conducted with total cells of 860,000, 1,021,000,
1,420,000 and 1,950,000, respectively, and it was found that a
mesh containing at least 1,420,000 cells was required to resolve
the 2D flow field sufficiently.
3. Results and discussion

where Fi is the volume fraction of tracer monitored at the outermost
periphery of packing. Therefore, the numerical results could dem-
onstrate the features of the liquid residence time distribution in
RPB reactors.
2.4. SM model
The computational domain of RPB reactor was divided into the
packing and cavity areas (see Fig. 2), namely, the rotating and sta-
tionary areas. The SM (sliding mesh) model, provided by FLUENT, is
available to simulate the rotating environment. The SM model is a
completely unsteady method, where the rotation of the packing is
specifically considered. At the interface between the rotating and
3.1. Effects of rotating speed on liquid velocity
Fig. 4a shows the mean liquid velocity along the radial direction
within RPB at five different rotating speeds. It should be noted that,
in the area from the inlet to the first (or second) packing layer, the
CFD results of liquid phase were plotted successively due to the li-
quid flow still being continuous in this area as shown in Fig. 5,
which demonstrated the typical liquid flow in RPB. However, in
9
900 rpm
8 packing ω r (900 rpm)
800 rpm
7 700 rpm
Liquid velocity u (m·s -1)

the stationary areas, the solution data are exchanged via velocity
600 rpm
transformation from one frame to the other [27]. In this work, 6
500 rpm
for achieving fine numerical accuracy and flow visualization of li-
5
quid phase in RPB, SM model was adopted in all packing areas to
generate a high gravity environment. 4

3
2.5. Boundary conditions
2
In the simulation of flow patterns, at the inlet, the width was set packing area cavity
as 3 mm, the volume fraction of the liquid phase was set to 1, and
1 area (a)
the velocity-inlet type condition was adopted. In the entire compu- 0
0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09
tational domain, the volume fraction of the liquid phase was ini-
tialized to 0, so that the whole flow field was initially filled with Radius r (m)
stationary air. The effects of gas flow on the liquid flow behavior
30
have not been investigated in this work at present. At the outlet 1000 rpm
(the outer periphery of the RPB model), the outflow boundary con- 27 900 rpm packing ω r (1000 rpm)
dition was applied. Gravitational force should be neglected due to
24 700 rpm
Liquid velocity u (m·s )

the two dimensional form of RPB model. For all packing’s surface,
-1

600 rpm
the no-slip boundary condition was specified. The fluid zone, con- 21
400 rpm
taining the packing with a rotating speed in the range of 500– 18
900 rpm, was used to create high centrifugal force. In addition,
the cavity area was defined as a stationary area. 15
12
2.6. Solution procedure
9

All CFD simulations were performed using the FLUENT code in 6

double precision mode. The pressure–velocity coupling was re- 3 (b)
solved using the SIMPLE algorithm. The Geo-Reconstruct spatial
discretization was applied for volume faction equation. A second- 0
0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15 0.18 0.21 0.24
order upwind scheme was selected for the momentum and turbu-
lent kinetic energy equations, etc. Each simulation was conducted Radius r (m)
for 5  103 time steps with a time step size of 104 s, which was Fig. 4. The mean liquid velocity along the radial direction within RPB at five
long enough for achieving steady state, and 50 max iterations were different rotating speeds. (u = 0.5 m/s) (a) CFD results; and (b) experimental results
performed per time step to achieve calculation convergence. Sim- by Yang [28].
 X. Shi et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 228 (2013) 1040–1049
Fig. 5. Typical liquid flow in RPB (N = 600 rpm, u = 0.5 m/s, t = 0.5 s).
the remaining packing and cavity areas, the velocity data was dis-
continuous, due to that the flow field information of liquid phase
was collected from the dispersive liquid droplets. Each velocity va-
lue was the mean velocity of eight liquid droplets collected uni-
formly in the circumferential direction, which were actually very
close. Near the inner periphery of packing, the liquid velocity in-
creased quickly from the initial inlet velocity to pass and then drop
to the local rotating speed (xr), as shown by the velocity peaks in
Fig. 4a. This means that once the injected liquid was captured by
the packing, it would be quickly synchronized at the tangential
direction with the motion of the rotating packing, and its speed
might pass the local rotating speed after being combined with its
injected radial velocity (see Fig. 4a). However, the packing network
would retard the relative movement of the liquid phase and even-
tually force the liquid to completely synchronize with the rotating
packings. At the same location in the packing area, as the rotating
speed increased, the liquid velocity increased as well and had the
same direction of movement with the rotating packing, indicating
that the liquid velocity depends strongly on the rotating speed. It
also showed that, the closer to the outer periphery of packing area,
the greater liquid velocity. The simulated results agreed with pre-
vious experiments (see Fig. 4b) [28], which also showed that the
measured velocity of liquid flow was close to the rotating speed
Fig. 6. Images of volume fraction and velocity vectors (liquid phase) in the packing
and cavity areas (N = 600 rpm, u = 0.5 m/s, t = 0.5 s).
1045
(xr). Finally, the liquid droplets would be thrown off the packing
area at the tangential direction by the great centrifugal force (see
Fig. 6). Due to the loss of interaction from the rotating packing,
the liquid velocity in the cavity area remained almost the same
as that in the outermost layer of packing.
3.2. Effects of rotating speed and inlet velocity on flow patterns of
liquid
The above CFD results demonstrated that the VOF method can
be used to capture the interface between gas–liquid in RPB clearly.
At low and high rotating speeds, the flow patterns of liquid phase
in the packing area were quite different, as shown in Fig. 7. The
average diameter of liquid droplets at high rotating speed
(900 rpm) was significantly smaller than that at low rotating speed
(500 rpm). At the low rotating speed (see Fig. 7a), in the area close
to the inner periphery of packing, the forms of liquid flow were
mainly pore flow and droplet flow. As the liquid flow moved grad-
ually to the out periphery of packing, the droplets became smaller
and smaller, probably because that the liquid phase was split con-
tinually by the rotating packing along the radial direction. At the
high rotating speed (see Fig. 7b), the liquid flow was dispersed as
fine droplets in almost the whole fluid field, leading to the increase
of specific surface area of liquid phase and hence the mass transfer
at the interface; however, if the liquid inlet velocity was increased
to 2 m/s (see Fig. 7c), the split of liquid flow into small droplets by
the rotating packing would require more layers of packing. The
numerical results also indicated that the collision probability and
the interaction intensity between the liquid flow and the rotating
packing were enhanced greatly at high rotating speeds. The CFD
simulations of liquid flow patterns also agreed well with previous
visualization studies [7,29]: the liquid flow in packing area was
split into the various forms of film flow, droplet flow and pore flow.
In addition, the simulated liquid droplets, especially in cavity area,
were also consistent with the images by high-speed stroboscopic
photography [28].
3.3. The maldistribution of liquid flow in RPB
The non-uniformity of liquid flow in the packing will result in
decreasing surface area for mass transfer and poor mixing effi-
ciency of the process [7]. In order to study the maldistribution of
liquid flow in RPB reactor, eight baffles were added into the RPB
model and arranged regularly on a circumference close to the inner
1046 X. Shi et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 228 (2013) 1040–1049
Fig. 7. Contour of volume fraction of liquid phase in the packing area (t = 0.5 s)
(a) N = 500 rpm, u = 0.5 m/s; (b) N = 900 rpm, u = 0.5 m/s; and (c) N = 900 rpm,
u = 2 m/s.
periphery of packing. All the baffles were synchronized with the
rotating packing and the outlet boundary condition was applied
on the inner edges of all baffles. The liquid could only be injected
into the packing area at the gap between two adjacent baffles.
Therefore, the excessive liquid flow, which was prevented from
entering the packing area by baffles, would not cause adverse im-
pacts on the convergence of the simulation. In this section, two
rotating speeds (500 and 900 rpm) were tested, respectively (see
Fig. 8). Just as Burns and Ramshaw [7] found by visual study (see
Fig. 8. The maldistribution of liquid phase in the packing area (t = 0.5 s) (a)
N = 500 rpm, u = 0.5 m/s; (b) N = 900 rpm, u = 0.5 m/s; and (c) N = 900 rpm,
u = 2 m/s.
Fig. 9), there was severe maldistribution of liquid flow in the rotat-
ing packing area at low rotating speeds. Fig. 8a shows the liquid
flow moving on radial orientation as relative to the rotating pack-
ing. Little liquid phase was found in the local packing area behind
the baffles. It indicated that, as relative to the rotating packing, the
movement of liquid phase on the circumferential orientation
would hardly occur. At a higher rotating speed (Fig. 8b), a relatively
uniform distribution of liquid existed in the whole flow field, and
 X. Shi et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 228 (2013) 1040–1049
Fig. 9. The maldistribution of liquid in RPB [7] (1. Dry packing; 2. Packing with
liquid; 3. Metal blades).
the finer liquid droplets could reduce the degree of maldistribution
and enhance the mass transfer between the gas and liquid phases;
however, when the liquid inlet velocity was increased to 2 m/s, the
degree of maldistribution was enhanced again (see Fig. 8c). There-
fore, it demonstrated clearly that the quality of initial liquid distri-
bution was essential for the uniform distribution of liquid in the
packing area, especially at low rotating speeds and high liquid inlet
velocities.
3.4. The flow pattern of liquid in the RPB with static baffles
In this section, it was intended to optimize the structure of the
RPB model. Seven layers of packing were removed from the middle
and a ring of baffles was added at the same location. The baffle ring
consisted of 36 pieces of baffles and each baffle had a height of
9 mm and a width of 2 mm. The area surrounding the baffles was
regarded as stationary. Therefore, the whole packing area was sep-
arated by the baffles into two parts (see Fig. 10). The calculating
procedures and the remaining boundary conditions were the same
as the above simulations. Fig. 10 shows the contour of liquid phase
in the RPB model with static baffles. It indicates that the average
diameter of the liquid droplets in the second ring of packing was
significantly smaller than that in the first one, and also smaller
than that in the RPB model without baffles. The moving directions
Fig. 10. Contour of volume fraction of liquid phase in the RPB with static baffles (N = 500 rpm, u = m/s, t = 0.5 s).
1047
Dimensionless concentration of tracer Fi
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
Residence time t i (s)
Fig. 11. Typical RTD curve (N = 600 rpm, u = 0.5 m/s).
of liquid phase were changed by the baffles after it flowed across
the first ring of packing, and the liquid was then split again by
the second ring of packing. The baffles prevented the liquid from
moving synchronously with the first ring of packing, hence increas-
ing the relative velocity between liquid and the second ring of
packing. Therefore, such a structure scheme helped generate more
fine liquid droplets and enhance the update of liquid surface. It also
helped form the second end effect and hence intensified the mass
transfer process significantly.
3.5. Effects of rotating speed and inlet velocity on MRT
The typical RTD dimensionless curve (pulse response) with an
inlet velocity of tracer at 0.5 m/s and a rotating speed of 600 rpm
is shown in Fig. 11. It illustrated the dimensionless tracer concen-
tration at the outer periphery of packing by CFD simulation. The
fluctuation in the curve was due to the fact that the liquid fluid
was not continuous to leave the packing area, but in the form
of dispersed droplets as discussed above. The MRT ðtÞ of the li-
quid phase was calculated from the RTD curve according to Eq.
(9). The effects of rotating speed and liquid flow rate on the
MRT were thus studied as shown in Figs. 12 and 13, respectively,
and both CFD predictions showed similar trends with the exper-
imental results [8], which are not shown here due to the different
equipment scale from this work. As the rotating speed increased
the second ring
of packings
static baffle
the first ring
of packings
1048
0.09
Mean residence time (s)
0.08
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
500 600
Fig. 12. Effects of rotating speed on MRT (u = 0.5 m/s).
0.09
0.08
Mean residence time, s
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.25 0.50
Inlet velocity vinlet
Fig. 13. Effects of inlet velocity on MRT (N = 600 rpm).
from 500 to 900 rpm, the MRT declined from 0.089 s to 0.052 s,
due to the intensified centrifugal acceleration and the increased
liquid velocity in the rotating packing at higher rotating speeds.
It was also found that the MRT dropped quickly at rotating speeds
below 700 rpm and then changed slowly after the rotating speed
passed 700 rpm. An increase in rotating speed reduced the thick-
ness of liquid film on the surface of packing, and increased the li-
quid velocity, so that the velocity gradient (du/dy) within the
liquid film increased, which led to increased shear force
(s = ldu/dy) eventually [30]. When the increasing shear force
became significant, it would slow down the liquid flow dramati-
cally; hence hindering the further decrease of MRT with increas-
ing rotating speed at the high speed range. As the inlet velocity of
liquid flow increased from 0.25 to 1.25 m/s, the MRT was dropped
from 0.082 to 0.040 s. Once the liquid was injected into the pack-
ing area, its initial kinetic energy could be ‘‘absorbed’’ quickly by
the rotating packing. However, larger liquid flow rates would pro-
mote the motion of liquid in the radial direction and help the li-
quid pass the initial layers of packing more easily, leading to the
decrease of MRT. In addition, at the same rotating speed or inlet
velocity, MRT in the RPB with baffles was smaller than that in the
RPB without baffles (Figs. 12 and 13), probably due to that the
baffles could shorten the trajectory of liquid flow in the packing
zone.
X. Shi et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 228 (2013) 1040–1049
4. Conclusion
RPB without baffles In this work, a two-dimensional CFD model of RPB reactors has
RPB with baffles been developed in FLUENT code. The numerical simulations
showed that once the liquid was injected into the packing area, it
was quickly synchronized with the motion of the rotating packing.
Near the inner periphery of packing, the liquid velocity increased
quickly from initial inlet velocity to almost the local rotating speed
(xr). At the same location in the packing area, as the rotating speed
increased, the liquid velocity was increased as well. The average
diameter of liquid droplets at high rotating speeds was signifi-
cantly smaller than that at low rotating speeds, and as the liquid
phase flowed to the outer periphery of packing, the liquid droplets
became smaller and smaller. Maldistribution of liquid in the pack-
700 800 900 ing was also verified and the degree of maldistribution would be
-1 relatively reduced at high rotating speeds. It was also found that
the quality of initial liquid distribution was essential for the unifor-
mity of liquid in the packing area. The diameter of the liquid drop-
lets in the RPB with static baffles was smaller than that in the RPB
model without baffles. In addition, the increase of the rotating
speed and the inlet velocity of liquid could decrease the MRT of li-
quid significantly. The CFD results indicated that VOF model is effi-
cient for clearly capturing the interface between gas–liquid phases
RPB without baffles
in RPB, which will help the understanding of gas–liquid distribu-
RPB with baffles
tions in RPB reactors. With the improvement of computer perfor-
mance and simulation models in the future, more precise and
comprehensive simulations on the multiple gas–liquid flows in
RPB by three dimensional models will be achieved eventually.
Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support pro-
vided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.
21121064, 20990224 and 21206003).
0.75 1.00 1.25
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