Study on the uniform flow in adsorption device with perforated plate distributor

Abstract

The adsorption device is widely used in the purification of impurity-containing wastewater, which is of great significance. However, the problem of non-uniform distribution of liquid in the packed bed has a large impact on the adsorption process. In the current study, CFD is used to simulate the fluid flow state during the adsorption process based on the physical modelling of the adsorption device, where the packed bed is modelled as a porous medium. By studying the effect of hole distribution, perforation rate, thickness and installation position of the perforated plate on flow uniformity and bed pressure drop, the influencing factors affecting the uniform distribution of fluid and pressure drop are discussed. Results show that changing the hole array did not have a significant effect on the fluid uniformity. When the perforation rate of the distributor is 15–29.4 %, the pressure drop is smaller and the flow distribution uniformity is better. The non-uniformity of flow field decreases first and then increases continuously with the increasing of the thickness. When the thickness of the perforated plate is between 10 and 30 mm, the overall performance is the best. Increasing the distance between the perforated plate and the inlet can reduce the impact strength of high-speed fluid on the perforated plate and improve the flow uniformity and increasing the inlet flow rate of the fluid can improve the uniformity of the flow field within a certain range, but it will increase the fluid flow loss.