TYPES OF PACKINGS

Prof. Manoj B. Mandake

Department of Chemical Engineering,

BVCOE Navi Mumbai

PACKED DISTILLATION COIUMN
• In a packed tower we have two types of packings ,
depending upon the way they are held in a tower.

• Random packings are packed randomly while

structured are arranged in a packing blocks, one over
the other.

• This are the broad classes of packings. depending

upon the vendor there could be changes in shape.
• Majority of the above packings are fabricated in
metal, ceramic and plastics. some packings can also
be fabricated in glass and graphite.

• Packed columns are not suitable for dealing with

liquid containing or producing large concentration of
solids, as the packings will block up and or distribute
unevenly.

• In order to overcome problems associated with ‘dirty’

fluids such as heavy residue, in refinery a new type of
packings known as ‘grid trays’ has been introduced.
• Packed columns are particularly useful in the field
of vacuum distillation.

• A good packing material is the one that provides

a high surface area per volume.

• The material of construction must provide a high

liquid flow capacity as well as a good resistance to
the pressure (high strength). Finally the pressure
drop should be desirably low.
• When the size increases, both mass transfer and pressure
drop decrease.

• The optimal size and shape is the one which compromise

both factors. 

• Nowadays metal and plastic packing have replaced the

ceramic

• However, ceramic elements are still used when corrosive

chemicals are involved and good wettability is required.
• For random packing, the old rashig rings (d3)
and berl saddles (d2, yellow pieces) are
substituted by pall rings, intalox saddles, mini
cascade ring, and a broad range of other
different shaped elements (d1, d2).
 
• Concerning structured packing, it is
considerably more expensive than the random
one.

• However, it has the advantage of high mass

transfer efficiency with very low pressure drop.
Pall rings
Raschig Rings
Structured Packings
Grid Trays
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION FEATURES OF
COLUMN INTERNALS

• Several factors control the design and

construction of plates and trays.these factors
are :
• Load on the tray due to dead weight,liquid
weight and impact due to downcoming liquid.

• Expansion due to a rise temperature.

• Ease of installation and fabrication.

• Ease of access and maintenance.

• Method of support.

• Material of construction.

• Safety.
Plate design
• Plates or trays can be either as one piece
trays or as sectional trays.

• One piece tray may be made of cast iron.

• One of the main advantages is its ability

to cope with thermal expansion.
Loading conditions for plates ands trays.

• The loads which cause deflection are:

• Weight of the trays with contacting devices
and downcomers.
• Weight of the liquid.
• Impact load of the downcoming liquid, which
is given by
load=
• Where w= wt. of the liquid per second.
v=velocity per second
g=gravitation constant.
• Weight of maintenance personnel and
tools.
• The design based on certain guidelines for tray
loadings are as follows:
1.Fractionating trays shall be designed for uniform
live load of 60N/
2.The weight of liquid at maximum height of weir
setting whichever is greater.
3.Maximum deviation from horizontal at normal
tray loading shall not exceed 1/900th
of the span.
4.Areas under downcomers shall be design for a
uniform load of 3200 N/
or weight of liquid for one half of the height of
downcomer whichever is greater.
5.pans shall be designed for a uniform live
load of 800 N/ or the wt. of liquid at
the maximum operating level on the pan
, whichever is greater.
6. baffels shall be designed for a live load
of 800 N/ on the project horizontal
area.
 Deflection and stresses
• Defiection and stress determination for trays will
depend on the methods used for the supporting
structure.

1.the tray is supported on a peripheral ring. this

method is adopted only for small diameter columns.

2.the tray is supported on a truss made up of angel,

channel or trapezoidal section members rolled sheets.
Trays supported on a peripheral ring

• 1.this may be considered as a circular plate,

fixed at the circumference and subjected to a
uniform load over a surface. the deflection is
given by
• Where E=modulus of elasticity.
t=thickness of the plate.
R=radius of the plate.
if possions ratio for metal is taken as1/3
i.e, m=3
then,
• During the cleaning and assembly
operations uniformly distributed load of
tray and downcomers will produce a
stress in the tray which is given by

where, p=uniformly distributed load

R= radius of tray
t=thickness of tray.
• While due to be concentrated load of
maintenance personnel and tools the
stress produced in the tray will be given by,

where,w=conc. Load at the centre of tray

t= thickness of tray
R=radius of tray
x= any intermediate radius.
 Trays supported on a truss
• The size of each purlin or beam of the truss
will be determined by the span and the load
shared by the purlin.
• The load on the tray will be shared by the
purlins in proportion to the area of the tray
supported by it.
• The deflection of each purlin has to be limited.
• The deflection is given by

Where W=total load carried by the purlin.

l=span or purlin.
I=moment of Inertia.
• The stress is the purlin is given by,

• For uniformly distributed load,

Where, Z=Modulus of section of the

purlin.
Truss support for tray
 Purlins or beams
• These may be fabricated in the form of angles , channels
or trapezoidal sections from sheets.
• The following conditions may be observed as far as
possible,

1.Support beam axis should preferably be normal to the

direction of liquid flow on the tray.

2.Beam depth should not exceed 20% of the vertical

distance between trays.
3.tray areas blanked by supporting
member should be in range of 5 to 10%
of the total tray area.

4.holding down bolt should be of 10 mm

diameter.

5.bolt spacing around trays should not

exceed 100 mm and that on the
downcomers should not exceed 75 mm.
 VERTICAL SUPPORTS
• The load on the vertical supports is the total
weight of all trays including the liquid and the
total impact load.
• The load is shared by a large no. of vertical bars.
• By providing a sufficient no. of vertical supports
it is possible to limit deflection of the tray to the
desired range.
• Support bars of carbon steel are either round or
hexagonal.
 Support plates in the packed column
• The load to be carried by the support plates at
the bottom of the column are
1.weight of the packing
2.weight of the liquid
3.force due to the pressure surges.
4.weight of the intermediate supports.
• If there are no intermediate supports, the entire
load will be taken by the bottom support.
 Support for column
• Column of 600 mm internal diameter and above are
usually mounted on mild steel skirts.
• Smaller columns are more often mounted on legs or
from the steel structure.
• The skirt height is decided by NPSH requirement of
the bottom product pump.
• Expect for the mild steel columns, the top 150 mm
skirt should be made from same material as column to
avoid the contamination of material in contact with
process.
 Nozzles
• The column is provided with several nozzles.

• All nozzles above 50 mm diameter have to

checked for reinforcement.

• Similarly, all nozzles above 50 mm diameter

are to be provided with standard pipe
flanges.
 Trays
• A column in this type used in industry, is
made up of shell fabricated from sheets by
welding.

• It has no flange joints.

• This naturally require a special design of

trays, which can be easily dismantled and
removed.
• Such trays are sectional trays.

• These trays are made from stainless

steel, with thickness of 2 mm and with
holes of 5 mm diameter.

• The downcomers at even no.of trays are

located at the ends.
• The shape of downcomers is segmental with
size 300 mm * 1700 mm at the top and 225
mm *1700 mm at the lower end.

• The shape of the downcomer is rectangular

with a size 300 mm * 2620 mm at the top
and 200 mm *2620 mm at the lower end.
 Support for trays
• The supporting system consists of six purlins
symmetrically placed underneath each tray.
• The ends of purlins are attached to two sectors
which are fixed to the column walls.
• The load carried by each purlin is in proportion
to the area of tray supported by purlin.
• The width is taken as half the distance to the
next purlin.
THANK YOU