DETERMINATION OF PRESSURE DROP DEPENDENCE OF MASS TRANSFER PLATE OF COLUMN APPARATUS ON PLATE BLADE CONTAMINATION DEGREE BY CFD-SIMULATION

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to simulate the movement of vapor movement through the mass transfer plate blade and to analyze the dependence of the pressure drop on the plate on the degree of contamination of its holes. The construction of an accurate full-size model with detailed drawing of all holes in the perforated surface for finite element analysis is not justified, so the methods of computer prototyping will be applied. To indicate the surface in the apparatus that corresponds to the perforated surface, the «porous material» module will be used, which allows to pass the fluid, but to resist it, similar to the replaced material. The article presents the pressure drop dependence of mass transfer plate of column apparatus on plate blade contamination degree, which is necessary to improve the operation of the column apparatus and prevent the losses of technological regime. To simulate the hydrodynamics of vapor movement through the plate, a prototyping of the mass transfer plate by a porous medium with the same movement properties is proposed. The properties of the porous layer, such as porosity and resistance intensity, were set for the mathematical description of this process. Using the ANSYS CFX software package, the hydrodynamics of the vapor movement through the mass transfer plate blade is simulated and the dependence of the pressure drop on the plate on the degree of contamination of the blade holes is determined. The visualization of the pressure drop on the mass transfer plate is presented. Simulated hydrodynamics of the vapor movement through the mass-exchange plate blade and the dependence of differential pressure on the plate to the contamination degree of the plate holes. The obtained dependence is shown on the graph. This technique can be used not only to simulate the vapor movement through a mass transfer plate, but also through any perforated surface.