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Effect of flow direction on conversion in isothermal radial flow fixed‐bed reactors
Author(s) -
Balakotaiah Vemuri,
Luss Dan
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690270313
Subject(s) - isothermal process , isothermal flow , volumetric flow rate , flow (mathematics) , mechanics , thermodynamics , chemistry , regular polygon , perturbation (astronomy) , mathematics , geometry , physics , open channel flow , quantum mechanics
Singular perturbation solutions are used to derive criteria predicting the influence of change in flow direction on the conversion in an isothermal radial‐flow, fixed‐bed reactor. It is shown that when the reaction does not involve a change in the number of moles, the outward flow direction is the preferred one for any reaction with a convex rate expression. The inward flow direction is a better choice for any reaction with a concave rate expression. A more intricate behavior occurs for reactions involving a change in volume. Analytical approximations and numerical solutions indicate that the influence of flow direction on the conversion is rather small.