Rational description of trickle flow through packed beds part II: Radial spreading of the liquid

Abstract

We investigated the liquid spreading in a packed bed under a trickle-flow regime following two approaches. First, we derived analytical relations aflow to be computed, assuming the liquid spreading to be a homogeneous markovian process, the transition probabilities of which are calculated supposing a l algorithm based on a constrained entropy maximization. We show that the usual radial dispersion coefficient is mainly related to the geometrical aspect mean density flow distribution. This coefficient cannot represent the evolution of local quantities such as liquid flow-rate distributions.