Liquid dispersion behaviors in a rotating packed bed with different packing arrangements: A comparison study

Wire mesh packing is widely used in the rotating packed bed (RPB). Packing arrangements have been proven to influence the mass transfer of an RPB. However, the liquid dispersion behaviors including dispersion characteristics and mechanisms for packing with different arrangements require further study. In this work, the dispersion behaviors of wire mesh packing with coiled and concentric arrangements were compared. An in -situ Doppler optical probe method was firstly employed to obtain fundamental parameters of liquid dispersion characteristics, such as the Sauter mean diameter, size distribution, and velocity of liquid droplets. The obtained results showed that the coiled arrangement was conducive to generating droplets with large velocity and narrow size distribution owing to the capturing and spreading of liquid inside the packing, while the concentric arrangement was beneficial in decreasing droplet size due to the shearing and carrying actions of the packing. Based on the optimization of liquid dispersion, the max and average reductions of d32 were 34.8% and 19.0% for packing with concentric arrangement than a coiled one. Further comparison results of dispersion characteristics indicated that the optimized concentric arrangement with 3 layers could provide better liquid dispersion than that of a coiled one with around 20 layers.