[en] In this work X-ray tomography is used to analyse the influence of liquid viscosity on liquid flow in a column filled with Mellapak Plus 752Y structured packing. Tomographic measurements are performed at various column heights for different liquid flow rates. Water and glycerine aqueous solutions are successively used as working liquids in order to quantify the influence of liquid viscosity on hydrodynamic quantities such as liquid hold-up and gas-liquid interfacial area. As expected, both liquid hold-up and gas-liquid interfacial area increase with liquid flow rate. An increase of liquid viscosity has also a positive impact on liquid hold-up and on gas-liquid interfacial area. In all cases, the measured quantities are not constant along the bed height, leading to fluctuating axial profiles. Furthermore, tomographic images are used to identify different liquid flow patterns (films, contact-point liquid, flooded regions) in the irrigated cross section images. A method based on morphological techniques is proposed to quantify the fraction of liquid flow within each flow pattern depending on flow rate and liquid viscosity.
Disciplines :
Chemical engineering
Author, co-author :
Janzen, Anna; University of Paderborn > Chair of Fluid Process Engineering
Steube, Julia; University of Paderborn > Chair of Fluid Process Engineering
Aferka, Saïd; Université de Liège - ULiège > Chimie appliquée > Laboratoire de Génie chimique
Kenig, Evgeny; University of Paderborn > Chair of Fluid Process Engineering
Crine, Michel ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie appliquée > Génie chimique - Opérations physiques unitaires
Marchot, Pierre ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie appliquée > Département de chimie appliquée
Toye, Dominique ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie appliquée > Génie de la réaction et des réacteurs chimiques
Language :
English
Title :
Investigation of liquid flow morphology inside a structured packing using X-ray tomography
Publication date :
2013
Journal title :
Chemical Engineering Science
ISSN :
0009-2509
eISSN :
1873-4405
Publisher :
Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science, Oxford, United Kingdom
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