An anisotropic turbulent mass transfer model for simulation of pilot-scale and industrial-scale packed columns for chemical absorption. (September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Wenbin; Yu, Kuotsung; Yuan, Xigang; Liu, Botan
• Is Part Of: International journal of heat and mass transfer. Volume 88(2015:Sep.)
• Page Start: 775
• Page End: 789
• Publication Date: 2015-09
• Subjects: Absorption -- Computational mass transfer -- Anisotropic turbulent mass diffusion -- Packed bed -- Simulation -- Turbulence; Heat -- Transmission -- Periodicals; Mass transfer -- Periodicals; Chaleur -- Transmission -- Périodiques; Transfert de masse -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 621.4022
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2015.05.001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0017-9310

Abstract

Highlights: A model is proposed for simulation of mass transfer in absorption columns. The proposed model abandons the use of generalized Boussinesq's postulation. The concentration, temperature and velocity distributions are obtained. Satisfactory agreement is found between the simulated results and published data. Anisotropic turbulent mass diffusion in packed column is characterized. Abstract: An anisotropic turbulent mass transfer model, namely the Reynolds mass flux model (RMF), for simulating the chemical absorption process in packed column is introduced by the use of combined computational methodology. With the present model, the concentration and temperature as well as velocity distributions can be simultaneously obtained. The feature of the proposed model is that the modeled Reynolds mass flux equation is adopted to close the turbulent mass transfer equation so that the Boussinesq's postulation is abandoned and consequently the anisotropy of turbulent mass diffusion can be characterized. The present model is accompanied by the formulations of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational heat transfer (CHT). In mathematical expression of CFD and CHT, the Reynolds stress and Reynolds heat flux equations are used to close the turbulent momentum and heat transfer equations. The simulated results are validated with experimental data for pilot-scale and industrial-scale packed columns and satisfactory agreement is found between them. Furthermore, the Reynolds mass flux and the anisotropic turbulent mass diffusion are characterized and discussed.