Experimental and numerical simulation of discrete liquid flow in a packed bed

This paper presents a combined experimental and numerical method to simulate the liquid flow in a packed bed. Two types of the experiments, i.e. liquid percolation without gas flow and liquid flow with gas cross flow, were conducted using a three- or two-dimensional cold model, respectively. A mathematical model has been proposed for the numerical simulation of the liquid flow. This model was developed using a force balance approach combined with stochastic considerations, in which the liquid flow was treated as a discrete phase with stochastic dispersion based on the experimental observations. Accordingly, the interactions between liquid and the packed bed, and liquid and gas have been experimentally investigated and then were used to determine the model parameters involved in the model. The behavior of the liquid flow in packed beds can numerically be simulated using the proposed model. A reasonable agreement has been achieved between the model predictions and the experimental measurements.