Pressure Drop and Particle Image Velocimetry Measurement of Isothermal Fluid Flow in a Randomly Packed Bed of Spheres for Code Validation

Abstract

The work presented in this thesis includes experimental measurements of pressure drop and velocity measurements within a packed bed of smooth spheres gathered through particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques for the purpose of code validation and development. The techniques were applied to two separate but similar experimental facilities of smooth spheres. The working fluids used for the experiments include air and water for the pressure drop measurements and para-Cymene (p-Cymene) for the velocimetry measurements, facilitating the combined approach of PIV and Matched Index of Refraction (MIR). The results of these experiments are in two components. First, the pressure drop measurements are presented with error bars and are used to validate a selection of pressure drop correlations. This was performed for various aspect ratios (bed or column diameter over sphere or pebble diameter) with air and water for a range of inlet velocities or modified Reynolds numbers. Second, PIV results are presented from within the packed bed at various locations. This includes results from various bed depths and flow rates of a bed with an aspect ratio of 4.4. The results were analyzed with an in-house code and further post processing results include first and second order statistics as well as a normalized probability distribution function (NPDF) of the bed velocities.