Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Multiphase Flow in Structured Packings

Abstract

A volume of fluid multiphase flow model was used to investigate the effective area and the created liquid film in the structured packings. The computational results revealed that the gas and liquid flow rates play significant roles in the effective interfacial area of the packing. In particular, the effective area increases as the flow rates of both phases increase. Numerical results were compared with the Brunazzi and SRP models, and a good agreement between them was found. Attention was given to the process of liquid film formation in both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) models. The current study revealed that computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used as an effective tool to provide information on the details of gas and liquid flows in complex packing geometries.