CO-CURRENT DESCENDING TWO-PHASE FLOWS IN INCLINED PACKED BEDS: EXPERIMENTS VERSUS SIMULATIONS

The effect of inclination angle of a packed bed on its corresponding gas-liquid flow segregation and liquid saturation spatial distribution was measured in co-current descending gas-liquid flows for varying inclinations and fluid velocities, and simulated using a two-phase Eulerian computational fluid dynamics framework (CFD) adapted from trickle-bed vertical configuration and based on the porous media concept. The model predictions were validated with our own experimental data obtained using electrical capacitance tomography. This preliminary attempt to forecast the hydrodynamics in inclined packed bed geometries recommends for the formulation of appropriate drag force closures which should be integrated in the CFD model for improved quantitative estimation.