Premium
Local transitions in flow phenomena through packed beds identified by MRI
Author(s) -
Johns M. L.,
Sederman A. J.,
Bramley A. S.,
Gladden L. F.,
Alexander P.
Publication year - 2000
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.690461108
Subject(s) - reynolds number , mechanics , hele shaw flow , flow (mathematics) , volumetric flow rate , packed bed , stokes flow , materials science , viscosity , chemistry , nuclear magnetic resonance , physics , turbulence , chromatography , composite material
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) velocity measurement techniques are used to investigate flow of water and a glucose solution, of viscosity 3.89 × 10 −3 Pa·s, within the interparticle space of a cylindrical packed bed of 5 mm diameter glass ballotini. The experiments were performed over a range of Reynolds numbers from 0.84 to 14.52, spanning the regime where inertial effects begin to play a significant role relative to viscous forces. A transition from creeping to inertial flow occurs in isolated pores at a local Reynolds number, defined for each pore within the interparticle space, of approximately 30. Despite this transition in flow behavior in some pores, the gross features of the flow pattern scale approximately with flow rate, which can be explained by considering the volume of the void space in which the flow is nearly stagnant as largely determining the pressure distribution within the bed.