Experimental Investigation of Liquid Distribution in Open-structure Random Packings as a Basis for Model Refinement

Abstract

The present study aims at investigation of the liquid phase distribution in order to fill in the missing data on liquid spreading in industrial scale packing layer of metal Raschig Super-Ring (RSR) packings for development of a reliable prediction model. Our attempt to apply the well-proven dispersion model to RSR packings has faced difficulties connected with the packing open, web-like structure resulting in poor radial distribution properties and with the industrial scale of the packed column. An experimental set-up is designed so as to provide the necessary data for model parameters’ identification. Special attention is paid to the uniform liquid distributor, in order to ensure the validity of the model assumption of regular initial irrigation. The approach avoids the need of data from well-established wall flow, which can be measured at a very high (over 3 m in that scale) packing layer. Instead, it uses additional data from irrigation on the column wall, provided by a peripheral liquid distributor. The present work has obtained original data for the liquid distribution in RSR packings of different sizes addressing improvement and validation of a prediction model.