A Numerical Study on the Influence of Confining Walls on Drag and Heat Transfer Coefficients in Single‐Particle Lab‐Scale Reactors

• Published in: Chemie ingenieur technik 2024-12, Vol.96 (12), p.1595-1603
• Main Authors: Reinold, Philipp, Kutscherauer, Martin, Wehinger, Gregor D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics; Drag coefficient; Heat transfer; Single‐particle reactor; Wall effects
• ISSN: 0009-286X; 1522-2640
• DOI: 10.1002/cite.202400083

Single‐particle reactors in lab‐scale are a promising technology to gain an in‐depth understanding of the intricate reaction and transport processes that occur in catalyst particles under operando conditions. It is not described whether the effect of the bounding walls in such narrow flow channels influence the processes at the particle. Therefore, this work applies three‐dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to analyze the drag coefficient CD alongside the local and average particle Nusselt number Nup as characteristic local and integral quantities in the range of particle Reynolds numbers 10 ≤ Rep ≤ 103. An equation is derived to correct for the wall effects on CD and Nup and assist the experimenter in the interpretation of measured results. Single‐particle reactors are an emerging technology for rigorous catalyst lab‐scale test procedures. This work investigates with computational fluid dynamics how confining walls influence flow around a cylindrical particle and heat transfer. It proposes an equation to correct for wall effects and assist in the interpretation of experimental data.