Effect of hydrodynamic heterogeneity on particle dispersion in a Taylor-Couette flow reactor with variable configurations of inner cylinder

Liu, Lu; Yang, Xiaogang; Yang, Jie; Li, Guang; Guo, Yanqing; Wang, Guichao; Wang, Lian-Ping

Abstract

Background
Effect of hydrodynamic heterogeneity on particle dispersion in a Taylor-Couette flow (TC) reactor with variable configurations of inner cylinder has been investigated using CFD modelling.

Methods
Particle dispersion was tracked based on the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach, where the reactant solution phase was solved in the Eulerian reference frame, while the particle dispersion was calculated by tracking a large number of particles with consideration of the hydrodynamic forces acting on particles and adopting actual particle properties measured from the particle synthesis experiments.

Significant Findings
The simulation reveals that particle dispersion is significantly enhanced by increasing the inner cylinder rotational speed, characterized by particle distribution for both circular inner cylinder Taylor-Couette flow reactor (CTC) and lobed cross-section inner cylinder Taylor-Couette flow reactor (LTC). Particle trajectories or dispersion are influenced by the turbulent Taylor vortices. Particle radial dispersion affects the particle classification by presenting different particle axial velocities in radial direction, while particle axial dispersion can be seen as an indicator for global mixing occurring in the TC reactor, which is enhanced at high rotational speed, especially in the LTC. The calculated dispersion coefficient is found to be similar to the shape of particle size distribution found in the experiments.

Citation

Liu, L., Yang, X., Yang, J., Li, G., Guo, Y., Wang, G., & Wang, L.-P. (2022). Effect of hydrodynamic heterogeneity on particle dispersion in a Taylor-Couette flow reactor with variable configurations of inner cylinder. Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers, 131, Article 104141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2021.11.008

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 6, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Nov 23, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Deposit Date: Feb 2, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 4, 2022
• Journal: Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Print ISSN: 1876-1070
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 131
• Article Number: 104141
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2021.11.008
• Keywords: Multiphase flow model; Taylor-Couette flow reactor; Eulerian-Lagrangian approach; Particle dispersion
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3920117