Influence of particle morphology on pressure gradients of single-phase air flow in the mono-size non-spherical particle beds

Abstract

Adequate equivalent diameters for non-spherical particles in predicting the pressure drop of fluid flow through particle beds were pursued. A series of experiments to measure the pressure drop of single-phase air flow through particle beds were performed using three kinds of spherical particles (2, 3.5 and 5 mm diameter) and four kinds of cylindrical particles. The experimental data were utilized for evaluating previous models and for proposing a new model, a modified Wu et al. (2008) model with an alternative Ergun constant for the viscous energy loss term.The proposed model agreed well with the pressure drop of single-phase flow through spherical particle beds within 10% in average. The experimental data for cylindrical particle beds also agreed well with the proposed model within 16% in average by applying the equivalent diameter proposed by Li and Ma (2011) as a characteristic size of non-spherical particles.