CFD and experimental analyses of flow distribution uniformity in minichannel reactors with a bifurcation structure manifold

Abstract

This study investigated the flow distribution uniformity and pressure drop in minichannel reactors with a bifurcation structure inlet manifold and different type outlet manifolds. The numerical model was established and validated by experimental results. In order to analyze the effects of structural parameters on the flow distribution uniformity of the manifold, the bifurcation inlet manifold was first designed based on the principle of minimum entropy generation. The results showed that longer channel length of bifurcation in the inlet manifold allowed the flow to be fully developed and equally split into several flows. Then, with an identical bifurcation inlet manifold, the influences of outlet manifold with structures of bifurcation, triangle and rectangle, as well as the parallel minichannel length on the flow uniformity of minichannel reactors were also built and investigated. The results showed that the rectangular structure outlet manifold simplified the structure of minichannel reactors and reduced the parasitic power consumption. The flow uniformity of minichannel reactor increased as the parallel minchannel length increased and the impact was more significant at high inlet flow rate than at low inlet flow rate.