CFD SIMULATIONS OF LIQUID PHASE FLOW IN STRUCTURED PACKED COLUMN
Liquid flow behavior, such as velocity distribution, in the packed column is of considerable importance in determining column performance. Using the volume-averaged method, a computational fluid dynamics(CFD) model was proposed to describe the liquid flow behavior in a structured packing column where the gas phase is stationary.A column packed with Mellapak 350Y had an inside diameter of 150 mm and a height of 1000 mm was simulated by solving the flow equations.A commercial CFD code, PHOENICS 3.3, was used to predict the fluid dynamics behavior of the liquid phase flow.The simulated profiles of pressure, velocity and concentration of the tracer were presented.The axial backmixing coefficients evaluated by the CFD results were presented and compared with the experimental data and the relative deviation was 3.8%—36.8%.