Single phase and two-phase flow pressure drop in pebble beds

An experimental study was conducted on the pressure drop of single phase and air-water two-phase flow in the bed of rectangular cross sections filled with uniform spheres densely. In the present flow-regime model, the bed was subdivided into a near-wall region and a central region. And a new empirical correlation for the prediction of single-phase flow pressure drops was proposed based on the model. The correlation can be used to predict the single phase pressure drop for both great tube-to-particle diameter ratio packed beds and small tube-to-particle diameter ratio packed beds and for the pebble beds packing with spherical particles and non spherical particles. A new empirical correlation for the prediction of two-phase flow pressure drops was proposed based on the gas phase relative permeability as a function of the gas phase saturation and the void fraction. The correlation fit well also for both experimental data points of spherical particles and non spherical particles.