Calculation of Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Apparatus with Regular Tubular Packing

Among the apparatuses with a regular arrangement of packing elements creating an in-phase mode of vortex interaction, which ensures high efficiency of the processes, it is interesting to use a standard tubular packing. Such packing allows additional advantages associated with heat supply or extraction directly in the contact zone of the interacting phases, which is very important for conducting some chemisorption processes. The research covers such hydrodynamic regularities as hydraulic resistance during a heat carrier movement in pipes and during external flow around a tubular beam, retained liquid amount and gas content of layer in the external flow around the tubular beam with liquid and gas flows. The research was carried out using an experimental setup with a heat and mass transfer apparatus with regular tubular packing. The medium used during experiments is water-air. The research methodology included standard methods for determining hydraulic resistance and retained liquid amount and visual observation and photographing of gas-liquid flows. The novelty of the research was equations – one for calculating the hydraulic resistance in pipes, taking into account local resistances and pipe roughness. The other ones for determining the pressure losses during the external flow around the tubular beam, the retained liquid amount, and the gas content of the layer, taking into account the vortex interaction of gas and liquid flows. Graphical and calculated dependences of the investigated hydrodynamic characteristics were obtained as a result of the conducted research of the hydraulic resistance during the heat carrier movement in the pipes, as well as the hydraulic resistance and the retained liquid amount during the external flow around the tubular beam with a change in the gas velocity and irrigation density. When the heat carrier flows in the pipes, the numerical values of the hydraulic resistance in the transient mode do not exceed 1.5 kPa, in the developed turbulence mode in the range of the Reynolds number from 1·104 to 6·104 ΔР varies from 1.5 to 53 kPa. With the external flow around the tubular beam, in the developed turbulence mode wg = 4 m/s and L = 25 m3/m2h, the hydraulic resistance is 85 Pa, the retained liquid amount is 4.5·10-3 m. The change in the irrigation density in this mode (developed turbulence) in the L range from 10 to 100 m3/m2h leads to an increase in the hydraulic resistance from 65 to 160 Pa, the retained liquid amount from 2.16·10-3 to 13.6·10-3 m. The calculated dependencies are the basis of the method for calculating the hydrodynamic characteristics of the apparatus with the regular tubular packing, which can be used to calculate industrial devices.