Solving Linear Problems: Applications in Structural, Thermal, and Fluid Analysis

Abstract

Problems associated with heat exchange between a gas and a packed bed are quite common in several branches of industry. To properly study this type of phenomenon, a good prediction of the flow dynamics through the bed is necessary. Based on this, this work presents a study of the flow in a packed bed through computer simulation. The packed bed considered in this study is cylindrical and made up of spheres. The simple cubic sphere arrangement was considered to generate the bed geometry. To make the simulation feasible, some simplifications were necessary. The first was flow periodicity in the axial direction of the bed. Another simplification was symmetry in relation to one-eighth of the bed. A very simplified case, considering a single simple cubic cell of spheres, was also simulated. The geometry and mesh of the packed bed were generated in the Gambit software and the flow simulation was carried out in the Fluent software.