Experimental research of pressure drop in packed beds of monosized spheres a novel correlation for pressure drop calculation

Flow through packed beds of spheres is a complex phenomenon and it has been extensively studied. Although, there is many different correlations there is still no reliable universal equation for prediction of pressure drop. The paper presents the results of experimental research of pressure drop in packed bed of monosized spheres of three different diameters, 8, 11 and 13 mm set within cylindrical vessel of diameter dk = 74 mm, and two different heights of packed bed hs = 300 and 400 mm. It has been proposed modification of widely used Ergun’s equation in the form of fp = [150+1.3×(Rep/(1-e))]×(1-e)2/(e3×Rep) and new correlation fp = 1/[(27.4-25700×dh)/Rep+0.545+6.85×dh] for pressure drop calculation in sim- ple and convenient form for hand and computer calculations. For total number of 362 experimental runs the correlation ratio of the modified Ergun’s relation was CR = 99.3%, and standard deviation SD = 12.2%, while novel relation has CR = 93.7% and SD = 5.4%.