Bifurcation and stability analysis of temperature patterns in shallow-bed catalytic reactors

Abstract

Complex temperature patterns have been observed in shallow packed-bed catalytic reactors operated under autothermal conditions. These patterns are not desired in practice, and their elimination requires a fundamental understanding of the conditions leading to the emergence and disappearance of lower and higher mode stable patterns. This work analyzes the formation of transverse temperature patterns and their stability by utilizing cell models. Our results indicate that the minimum effective bed thermal conductivity required to eliminate all the stable patterned states scales with the reactor diameter. We also present transient simulations that elucidate the impact of initial conditions and the basins of attraction of various patterned and homogeneous states. Our results indicate that unstable patterned states can provide a good approximation of the basin boundaries of the initial conditions that lead to stable patterns.