Analysis of the Flow Behavior of Single and Multiphase Liquid in Packed Columns

In recent decades packed columns have become very popular for distillation processes since they acquire higher loadings and a better separation efficiency than ordinary tray columns. Fluid dynamics cover an important place in the design of packed towers. Identifying the main quantities remains subject of various research works. There exists a wide range of different approaches to determine the mass transfer coefficient kL and the specific interfacial area a. Mostly these researches use integral measurements. Since the flow behavior inside the column may change within a few centimeters packing height local investigations are more reasonable. The research work presented here follows this approach to gain information on these quantities by coupling experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The presentation focuses on some fundamental investigations on the determination of the surface area.