Three-dimensional numerical study on mass transfer in ordered packed beds

The volume averaging method is employed to study mass transfer phenomena under retentive conditions in ordered packed beds. The separation performance of different packing forms and particle shapes is investigated. The simulation results show that the face center cubic (FCC) packing obtains good separation performance under nonretentive and retentive conditions because it enhances the uniformity of the flow field. Although the flow fields of the simple cubic (SC) packings with different particle shapes are similar, their separation performance has a large difference. Moreover, the structure with long ellipsoids in the SC packings leads to better performance.