Experimental and numerical investigation of dry pressure drop of 3D-printed structured packings for gas/liquid contactors

Abstract

Separation units, such as distillation and absorption columns, are used widely in the chemical industry. Their efficiency depends on the performance of their packing, determined by their pressure drop, capacity, and mass transfer efficiency. Combining CFD and additive manufacturing allows the design/production of efficient and high capacity packing. In this paper, the dry pressure drops of newly developed wire-based structured packings are evaluated numerically via a single-phase CFD model. The k-ω-SST turbulence model in Ansys Fluent was used. The experimental and numerical dry pressure drops of three Tetraspline (TS) packings are compared. The numerical model is validated with average errors of 13% and 20% compared with experimental data for TS made in stainless steel and polyamide, respectively, over a capacity factor range of 0.9 to 3.1 Pa0.5. A Kelvin-cell-based packing is also studied to confirm the robustness of the model. This study allows the rapid optimisation of the different TS with different geometric parameters, such as wire diameter and length, based on the pressure drop. Indeed, the experimental values of the dry pressure drop of a column of packing that measures 16,500 cm3 have been reproduced numerically with only a small deviation using a periodic domain of 42 cm3.