Che Eng Commu Flow Regime

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Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed

Reactor
a
AJAY BANSAL , R. K. WANCHOO & S. K. SHARMA
Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology , Punjab

University , Chandigarh, India
Published online: 25 Jan 2005.
To cite this article: AJAY BANSAL , R. K. WANCHOO & S. K. SHARMA (2005) Flow Regime Transition
in a Trickle Bed Reactor, Chemical Engineering Communications, 192:8, 1046-1066, DOI:
10.1080/009864490522597
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Chem. Eng. Comm., 192:10461066, 2005

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Inc.
ISSN: 0098-6445 print/1563-5201 online
DOI: 10.1080/009864490522597
Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle

Bed Reactor
AJAY BANSAL, R. K. WANCHOO, AND
S. K. SHARMA
Downloaded by [R. K. WANCHOO] at 23:32 07 August 2015
Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology,

Punjab University, Chandigarh, India
Hydrodynamic behavior of a trickle bed reactor is dependent on the flow regime
that arises when gas and liquid flow concurrently downward in the reactor. Empirical or semi-analytical models available in the literature do not predict to satisfaction
the transition between the trickle and pulse flow regimes in cocurrent down flow in a
TBR.
In the present study, flow transition between trickle flow (low-interaction) and
pulse flow (high-interaction) regimes was experimentally observed for different
non-foaming Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquid phases under concurrent down
flow conditions with air in a packed bed using different bed configurations. The
effect of bed geometry along with fluid phase properties has been considered to
modify the flow map coordinates, so as to collapse the data corresponding to different bed configurations and Newtonian liquid-phase properties onto a single curve
(within 20%). An empirical correlation for the prediction of Newtonian liquidphase mass velocity at the transition between high interaction and low interaction
regimes was developed, which assumes the form:
4=3
1=4
Lt
S2
G
kn 2
5:73
ke
G
S1
The correlation was found to be in good agreement with the experimental data available in the literature for different Newtonian liquid-phase systems including data on
nonspherical particles. This correlation is found to predict the transition satisfactorily when liquid-phase viscosity was replaced by apparent viscosity in the case
of viscoinelastic liquid-phase systems. The correlation was further extended to predict the transition for a viscoelastic liquid-phase system with the introduction of the
Weissenberg number as:

p
Lt;ve Lt;vi 1 2We2
Keywords Trickle bed reactor; Two-phase flow; Flow regime transition;
Newtonian=non-Newtonian systems
Introduction
Trickle bed reactors (TBR) are the most widely used type of reactors in the process
industry. The gas and liquid concurrently flow downward over a fixed bed of catalyst
Address correspondence to R. K. Wanchoo, Department of Chemical Engineering and
Technology, Punjab University, Chandigarh, India 160014. E-mail: wanchoo@pu.ac.in
1046
Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed Reactor
1047
particles. Trickle bed reactors are used in the petroleum, petrochemical, and chemical industries, in wastewater treatment, and biochemical and electrochemical processing. With ever-increasing demand for light oil and other products based on TBR
technology, any improvement in the understanding of the complex phenomena taking place inside the TBR can lead to major technical and=or economical breakthrough. The various factors affecting design, operation, and performance of a
TBR include hydrodynamic parameters, transfer coefficients, and reaction kinetics.
But a priori to knowing all these parameters is the flow regime prevailing, corresponding to the operating variables and physical properties of the system of interest.
In addition, the flow regime transition is strongly influenced by the foaming and
non-foaming character of the two fluids involved in a TBR. Knowledge of the flow
regime is prerequisite because other parameters like pressure drop, holdup, transfer
rates, and dispersion coefficient depend on the prevailing regime.
While flowing downward, gas and liquid rush towards the void space. This
results in different flow patterns. Based on the intensity of interaction involved
between the gas and liquid phase, these regimes are categorized as low interaction
or high interaction. Although the high interaction regime is further subclassified
as pulse, spray dispersed bubble, the transition from trickle to pulse (i.e., low to high
interaction) is of much more industrial importance as most of the reactors in industrial applications operate near the trickle to pulse transition (Satterfield, 1975).
Information on regime transition available in the literature is briefly reviewed here.
Flow Regime Transition

A number of flow maps for regime transition are available in the literature.
Weekman and Myers (1964), Sato et al. (1973), and Satterfield (1975) used G versus
L as the coordinates for the flow map, whereas Turpin and Huntington (1967) represented the map as L=G versus G. Charpentier and Favier (1975) plotted the dimensionless group (L=G)kw as a function of G=k, where k and w were originally
proposed by Baker (1954) for two-phase flow with empty horizontal pipes. Different
investigators have reported the effects of physical properties of the fluid on regime
transition. Chou et al. (1977) observed that with increase in viscosity or decrease
in surface tension the transition shifted to lower gas and liquid superficial velocities.
These authors have further concluded that even the use of Baker coordinates does
not cause the transition lines for various systems to coincide. In fact, the available
transition plots are mostly based on an air-water system and do not predict very well
the transition for other systems; for example, the transition for 93.9 wt% ethanol
and for 20 ppm heptyl alcohol in water differ by a factor of three. Chou et al.
(1977) and Sai and Varma (1988) observed that at a constant gas flow rate, the transition from trickling to pulsing occurred at higher flow rates as the bed void fraction
increased, but the data of Sato et al. (1973) did not show any significant variation
with respect to changes in void fraction. Gianetto et al. (1978) deemed it necessary
to consider the effect of void fraction in the flow regime map coordinates and proposed G=ke as the modified abscissa, against G=k as proposed by Charpentier and
Favier (1975). On the other hand, Sai and Varma (1988) selected (L=G)kw0.5 as
the ordinate, but the transitions, instead of collapsing to a single curve, showed a
family of curves corresponding to each system. These authors have reported data
on Newtonian and viscoinelastic non-Newtonian liquid phases using different packings with aspect ratios (Dc=dp) in the range of 4.74 to 15.7. However, these authors
1048
A. Bansal et al.
do not comment on wall flow. Similarly, the flow map proposed by Gianetto et al.
(1978) also had a family of curves. This indicates that the choice of axes or the
dependence of various parameters on regime transition have not been taken into
account properly. Sicardi and Hofmann (1980) observed the influence of the shape
of packing on pulsing inception, but the maps available in the literature do not
include shape factor as a parameter in the flow regime maps.
It is therefore necessary that the effect of liquid phase properties and bed characteristics on regime transition be taken into account properly and axes of the regime
map be so selected that the data collapse onto a single curve.
On the other hand, in many biochemical processes the broth characteristics are
known to change drastically as the process moves forward. The initial liquid
behaving like a Newtonian fluid and having water-like viscosity after biomass
growth and=or production often turns into a non-Newtonian fluid (Margaritis
et al., 1999). In spite of their importance in biotechnology and wastewater treatment, have received trickle beds involving non-Newtonian fluids little attention.
So far only a limited number of experimental studies on regime transition involving
non-Newtonian liquid systems have been reported (Sai and Varma, 1988; Iliuta
and Thyrion, 1997). Further, non-Newtonian fluids are known to show viscoinelastic (or purely viscous) and viscoelastic behavior. But in the non-Newtonian studies
the non-Newtonian nature of the industrial fluids has been assumed to be represented by different concentrations of carboxymethyl cellulose, CMC, which is
known to exhibit pseudo-plastic behavior and does not show viscoelasticity. It is
therefore interesting to extend the Newtonian correlation for non-Newtonian
systems exhibiting viscoinelastic and viscoelastic character.
Experimental
Experiments were carried out on a 7.4 cm diameter glass column, packed to a height of
4050 cm. A schematic diagram of the setup is shown in Figure 1. Entry for gas and
liquid phases were provided at the top of the column. Air coming from the compressor
via an air surge tank was first saturated with process liquid in a saturator before being
introduced into the packed bed. This would avoid the effect of mass transfer between
gas and liquid phase inside the column. For even distribution of liquid, a distributor
was provided at the top of the packed section. The distributor had 16 holes of
1.5 mm diameter. The schematic of the liquid phase distributor is shown in Figure 1.
The packing in the column was supported on a stainless steel mesh.
To study the effect of liquid viscosity and liquid surface tension on the regime
transition of the trickle bed reactor, different liquids were used along with air as
the gas phase. Packings of different shape and size were used to study the effect of
sphericity and void fraction on flow regime transition. Characteristics of packing
material and physical properties of liquid used in this study are listed in Tables I
and II respectively. In the case of packings with an aspect ratio (Dc=dp) less than
12, probable presence of wall effect cannot be ruled out. However, previous investigators such as Sai and Varma (1988) and Goto and Smith (1975), while working on
TBRs with aspect ratios in the range of 4.7415.7 and 6.2447.68 respectively, did
not report any wall effect. In the present study, the data recorded on packings like
glass beads II and solid cylinders with aspect ratios (Dc=dp) less than 12 may be
under the influence of wall flow. However, in our analysis, we have not taken wall
effect into consideration and the data on such packings may be used with care.
1049
Figure 1. Experimental setup.
The column was initially flooded with liquid alone so as to completely wet
the packing, and it was drained before the liquid was introduced into the column
at the desired rate. Air from the surge tank, through the saturator, was introduced
into the column at the desired rate. The column was allowed to attain the steady state.
The flow pattern across the glass column was visually observed. For each run the gas
flow was kept constant and the liquid flow rate was gradually increased in steps.
1050
A. Bansal et al.
Table I. Types of packing used

Type of
packinga
Packing size,
mm
Dp, mm
Porosity, e
Sphericity ,
U
Glass beads I
Glass solid
cylinders, d h
Glass Raschig rings
id=od h
Glass beads II
ZnO catalyst
pellets, d h
3.337
6.083 27.047
3.337
11.450
0.376
0.479
1.0000
0.7163
6.336=9.130
10.274
14.840
4.522 7.677
3.690
0.686
0.4225
14.840
5.302
0.441
0.406
1.0000
0.8500
All packing materials exhibited complete wetting.
The liquid flow rate at which transition was observed was noted. Corresponding to
the visual observation of the onset of pulsing the manometer fluid was found to indicate the fluctuations. In all systems, the onset of pulsing started at the bottom of the
column and with increased gas flow rates of liquid at a constant gas rate, the point of
pulse inception moved towards the column top. To observe the fluctuations corresponding to transition precisely, manometers with different manometer fluids like
water, CCl4, and mercury were used. For systems resulting in small fluctuations at
the onset of transition, water was used as manometer fluid. The transition was also
confirmed from the ~P=Z versus. L plots. It is reported in the literature that a sharp
rise in pressure drop is observed when the regime changes from low interaction to
high interaction (Chou et al., 1977). A log-log plot was plotted in each case and the
best fit curve, for low and high interaction regimes were drawn separately to intersect
at a point; the point of intersection was found to match fairly well with the visual
observations of the onset of pulsing. Sicardi et al. (2003) have recently confirmed
the reliability of non visual techniques for the detection of flow regime.
TABLE IIa. Properties of liquid phases: Newtonian fluids

Liquid phase
Tap water
6 ppm surfactant
(sodium lauryl
sulfate)
12 ppm surfactant
(sodium lauryl
sulfate)
60% glycerol
(w=w)
77% glycerol
(w=w)
Density,
kg m 3
Viscosity,
Pa s
Surface tension, mNm 1
Temperature,

C
997.6
999.5
9.60 10 4
11.13 10 4
70
59
22.0
16.0
999.5
11.13 10 4
55
16.0
1148.0
5.93 10 3
64
32.0
1192.7
27.04 10 3
63
32.0
1051
Table IIb. Properties of liquid phases: Non-Newtonian (viscoinelastic) fluids

Liquid phase
qL, kg m 3
K, Pasn
rL, mNm 1
T, C
CMC 0.15%
CMC 0.30%
CMC 0.40%
PEO 0.8%
PEO 1.6%
997.6
997.8
998.5
998.1
1000.5
0.00252
0.01633
0.34145
0.00230
0.01360
1.0000
0.9157
0.8909
1.0000
1.0000
63
59
57
57
55
30.0
30.0
30.0
29.0
30.5
Molecular weight of CMC 1 105; molecular weight of PEO 3 105.
Table IIc. Properties of liquid phases: Non-Newtonian (viscoelastic) fluids

Liquid phase qL, kg m3 K, Pasn
PAA 0.04%
PAA 0.08%
1000.7
1000.6
0.0340
0.0640
K1, Pa sm
0.673
0.644
0.0319
0.0699
0.8265
0.8131
rL, N.m1 T, C
68
67
18.0
17.0
Molecular weight of PAA 8.7 106.
Results and Discussion

Newtonian Systems
Based on a wide historical database, Larachi et al. (1999) developed a neural network
correlation. The present observed flow transition data have been compared with this
correlation in Figure 2. The correlation predictions were in good agreement with the
observed transition for an air-water system on small spherical glass beads
(dp 3.337 mm, e 0:404) with mean relative quadratic error (MRQE) Equation
(9) of 0.0469. The model due to Grosser et al. (1988) was found to predict well the
data on the air-water system using glass beads I with MRQE 0.0783 (Figure 3).
The effect of surface tension was also well predicted by the neural network correlation corresponding to 6 and 12 ppm surfactant (sodium lauryl sulfphate) solutions
on 3.337 mm glass beads (MRQE 0.1379 & 0.0590 respectively). In such systems no
foaming was observed until flow transition was achieved. The typical effect of surface
tension of liquid phase on regime transition is shown in Figure 4(a). However, the
correlation failed to predict the transition for non spherical particles (MRQE
0.6111 and 1.1662). This model also failed to predict the flow transition for highly
viscous solutions of 60 and 77 % (w=w) aqueous glycerol (MRQE 1.0120 and
4.2357). The effect of liquid-phase viscosity is shown in Figure 4(b). However, it
may not be out of place to conclude that the model, although based on a large experimental database, is suitable for small-sized spherical packings and accounts for the
variation in surface tension but is not suitable for non spherical packings and for
highly viscous solutions.
The present data were also subjected to various other correlations available in
the literature (Table III). The correlations of Wang et al. (1994), Blok et al.
(1983), and Larachi et al. (1993) show good agreement for the air-water system on
spheres with dp3.337 mm and e 0.404 (MRQE 0.1135, 0.3746, 0.0722 respectively). However, the correlation of Dudukovic and Mills (1986) under-predicted
1052
A. Bansal et al.
Figure 2. Parity between Lt,exp and Lt,neural at transition.
the results with MRQE equal to 0.7614. The data corresponding to solid cylinders
(dp 11.450 mm, e 0:479), Raschig rings (dp 3.690 mm, e 0:686), and large
glass spheres (dp 14.840 mm, e 0:441) were fairly well predicted by the correlation of Wang et al. (1994) and Larachi et al. (1993) with MRQE between 0.1390
Figure 3. Model predictions for air-water system (Grosser et al., 1988).
1053
Figure 4. Effect of liquid-phase properties on regime transition (low to high interaction): (a) effect
of surface tension; (b) effect of viscosity; (c) effect of rheological parameters K and n (nonNewtonian viscoinelastic fluids); (d) effect of viscoelasticity (non-Newtonian viscoelastic fluids).
and 0.3261. However, these correlations failed to account for the decrease in surface
tension or increase in viscosity. With decrease in surface tension or increase in
viscosity the correlation predictions were much higher, with MRQE greater than 1
in most of the cases. Except for the air-water system on 3.337 mm spheres, the
predictions of Blok et al. (1983) were also high (MRQE>1). The predictions by
Dudukovic and Mills (1986) were low and MRQE was between 0.3476 and
0.7614. From the above observations it is clear that various empirical correlations
are valid for specific conditions, and the variations in fluid properties and bed characteristics lead to large errors in correlation predictions.
1054
A. Bansal et al.
TABLE III. Empirical correlations used for comparison

Reference
Blok et al. (1983)

Wang et al. (1994)
Dudukovic and Mills
(1986)
Larachi et al. (1993)
Correlation(s)
V0;t
VG
p 0:045
as
e dp
0:337
G
Lt kw 4:864
k
G=ke 1
"
#
103 G
e ke 0:22
; 5:43
Lt min
kw
w G
1:25
Lt kwu
G
G
k
Larachi et al. (1999)
Neural network correlation
Present study
For Newtonian liquid phase:

4=3
1=4
Lt
S2
G
5:73
kn 2
ke
G
S1
For non-Newtonian (viscoinelastic) liquid phase:
4=3

1=4
Lt;vi
S2
G
5:73
kn0 2
ke
G
S1
For non-Newtonian (viscoelastic) liquid phase:
p

Lt;ve Lt;vi 1 2We2
Different kinds of flow maps are also available to predict the transition. As discussed earlier, different investigators chose different coordinates to plot the flow
maps. The most reliable of these maps is the one proposed by Gianetto et al.
(1978), the coordinates for this map being (L=G)kw versus G=ke. The data available
in the literature and the present data, corresponding to different bed geometries and
liquid phase properties, are plotted using the axes proposed by Gianetto et al.
(Figure 5). It is observed that the data do not collapse to a single line and lie within
150% and 50%. The large scatter or inability to predict the transition by the flow
maps may be explained by the following observations:
. Sicardi and Hoffmann (1980) observed the influence of the shape of packing on
pulsing inception, but the maps available in the literature do not include shape factor as a parameter.
. As pointed out by Chou et al. (1977), there is not a theoretical basis to apply the
choice of k and w in trickle bed transitions as originally it was proposed for empty
horizontal pipes by Baker (1954) and therefore may not properly take into account
the properties of the liquid and gas phase.
. A flow map of gas velocity versus liquid superficial velocity for the air-water system does not provide an accurate prediction for other fluids or for beds with different porosity or wetting characteristics (Chou et al., 1977).
1055
Figure 5. Regime flow map (Gianetto et al. 1978).
It is therefore worthwhile to develop an empirical correlation that may take into

account the bed geometry including bed porosity and shape factor along with the
liquid phase properties.
The critical liquid flow rate, Lt, corresponding to the inception of pulsing,
depends upon: gas flow rate, physical properties of liquid phase, porosity, particle
shape factor or sphericity, and physical properties of the gas phase. This dependence
can be expressed as:
Lt f G; qL ; lL ; rL ; qG ; lG ; dp ; e; /
It is always desirable to club the different parameters so as to yield the dimensionless groups. The dependence of gas and liquid phase properties is considered
to be represented by k and n respectively. The definition of k is taken from the literature (Baker, 1954) as:
1=2
qG
qL
k
2
qair
qW
1056
A. Bansal et al.
and the present data when subjected to multivariable regression yielded the form of n
as:
3:5 0:5 1=3
rW
lL
qW
n
3
rL
lW
qL
The exponent of rw =rL seems to be rather high, which may be due to the small
range of rL over which the present data has been generated. The 6 and 12 ppm surfactant solutions in water showed little or no foaming in the low-interaction regime
but severe foaming was observed in the high-interaction regime. Data observed
under non-foaming conditions have been used to develop Equation (3). However,
Equation (3) may not extend to foaming systems and should be used with caution
for rLvalues beyond the range of data upon which this correlation is based.
Wanchoo et al. (in press), based on their studies on particles of different shape
and size, observed that the effect of bed configuration on hydrodynamics of a trickle
bed reactor can satisfactorily be represented in terms of two parameters, S1 and S2.
These parameters, which have been so defined that they include particle effective
diameter, specific surface area, porosity of the bed, characteristic length of nonspherical particles and sphericity, are:
S1
as dp
e
and

S2
l
dps
/1
5
Lt, which depends on the gas and liquid phase property groups k and n and bed
configuration parameters S1 and S2, may be expressed as:
Lt f G; S1 ; S2 ; e; n and k
Rearranging Equation (6):
b

Lt
G c
S1 S2 d
kn a
ke
G
Using non linear regression technique (the Nelder and Mead method) the observed
data on transition were fitted to the above equation. The constants of the equation
thus obtained are:
a 5:73 0:13
4
b 0:05
3
1
c 0:06
2
1
d 0:08
4
With these constants, Equation (7) assumes the form:

4=3
1=4
Lt
S2
G
5:73
kn 2
ke
G
S1
1057
R2 0:98, variance 43:75, rmsd 0:77.

The regime flow map based on the correlation equation is shown in Figure 6. It
is observed that the data collapses on a single curve within 20%. The correlation
equation, when used to calculate the liquid phase transition mass velocity data, could
predict the data of other investigators for different liquid phase properties and bed
configurations to within 20%, as shown in Figure 7, whereas the present data,
which had wide variations in the liquid phase properties and bed configurations,
remained within 15% (Figure 8).
To verify the validity of the correlation Equation (8), the data from different
sources available in the literature was assigned to Equation (8). The mean relative
Figure 6. Proposed regime transition flow map.
1058
A. Bansal et al.
Figure 7. Parity between present model Equation (8) and literature data.
quadratic error (MRQE), defined below, was calculated:

s
P ep2
MRQE
n1
where e is experimental and p is predicted value of L at transition. MRQE values

for different systems are in Table IV.
Non-newtonian Systems
Viscoinelastic Systems
Different concentrations of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and polyethylene oxide
(PEO) have been considered to assess the effect of fluid rheology. Different concentrations of CMC exhibited pseudo-plastic behavior, however, for the different
concentrations of low molecular weight PEO used in the present study, the flow
behavior index, n, remained as unity, and the solutions are expected to show a purely
1059
Figure 8. Parity between Lt,exp and Lt,pred, present data (for key refer to Figure 2).
viscous character. The flow behavior of the viscoinelastic fluids involved in the
present study was described by the Ostwald-deWaele power law model:
s K c_ n
10
la K c_ n1
11
where K and n are the rheological parameters, flow consistency index and flow behavior index, respectively, and la represents the apparent viscosity of the fluid. The
combined effect of rheological parameters K and n on regime transition from low
to high interaction is shown in Figure 4(c).
Correlation for Viscoinelastic Systems
To extend the transition correlation developed for Newtonian liquids represented by
Equation (8), fluid viscosity may be replaced by the apparent viscosity. Sai and
Varma (1988) observed that the transition from trickle to pulse flow for nonNewtonian liquids is satisfactorily represented, as with Newtonian liquids, on substitution of the flow behavior index, K, for viscosity. But flow behavior index and
viscosity are dimensionally two different quantities and should not be replaced one
for the other, whereas viscosity and apparent viscosity are dimensionally consistent.
1060
A. Bansal et al.
Table IVa. Statistical comparison of different correlations with present data

Mean relative quadratic error, MRQE Equation (9)
System
Dudukovic
and Mills
(1986)
Wang
et al.
(1994)
Blok
et al.
(1983)
Larachi Larachi
et al.
et al.
Present
(1993)
(1999) correlation
0.7614
0.1135
0.3746
0.0722
0.0469
0.0428
0.4976
1.1308
1.7975
1.9261
0.1008
0.1939
0.4971
1.1156
2.3521
0.8913
0.0590
0.0589
0.6419
0.2736
1.8316
0.1451
1.2431
0.2378
0.5821
0.32611
1.5470
0.1978
0.6111
0.0706
0.4740
0.1390
1.1026
0.1791
1.1662
0.1479
0.5813
0.7130
3.6835
0.6629
1.0120
0.1155
0.3476
1.5075
11.3020
1.4539
4.2357
0.0942
Air-water, glass
beads I
Air-6 ppm
surfactant, glass
beads I
Air-12 ppm
surfactant, glass
beads I
Air-water, glass
beads II
Air-water, solid
cylinders
Air-water, Raschig
rings
Air-60% glycerol,
glass beads I
Air-77% glycerol,
glass beads I
Therefore, in Equations (3) and (8) the liquid viscosity lL is replaced by la to give
3:5 0:5 1=3
rW
la
qW
n
rL
lW
qL
12
4=3

1=4
Lt;vi
G
0 S2
5:73
kn
ke
G
S1 2
13
and
with these modifications the experimental data corresponding to regime transition to

predict L at transition for viscoinelastic fluids, Lt,vi, found to fall within 20%, as
shown in Figure 9.
Viscoelastic Systems
The typical regime transition in viscoinelastic fluids is shown in Figure 4(d). The
power law model represents the shear rate and shear stress data for viscoelastic fluids
adequately. Likewise, the first normal stress N1 can also be described by a two-parameter model as:
N1 K1 c_ m
14
1061
MRQE
Equation (9)
System
MRQE
Equation (9)
System
0.0926
0.2465
Air-water,
cylinders,
5.27 mm
Sai and
Varma
(1988)
Tosun
(1984)
Air-28%
glycerin,
spheres,
1.9 mm
0.2487
Air-2.5 ppm
Tergitol NPX,
spheres, 2.9 mm
Chou et al.
(1977)
0.1178
Air-water,
spheres,
2.9 mm
Chou
et al. (1977)
0.2510
Air-water,
spheres,
4.32 mm
Sai and
Varma
(1988)
0.1735
Air-water,
spheres,
2.39 mm
Sai and
Varma
(1988)
0.1188
Air-water,
spheres,
3.33 mm
Iliuta and thyrion

(1997)
Reference
0.0632
Air-water,
spheres,
3.0 mm
Christensen
et al.
(1986)
Reference
Table IVb. Statistical comparison of present correlation Equation (8) with literature data
0.8694
Air-water,
Raschig rings,
1.59 mm
Sai and
Varma
(1988)
0.2625
Air-water,
spheres,
3.0 mm
Iliuta et al.
(1996)
0.3732
Air-20%
glycerin,
cylinders,
5.27 mm
Sai and
Varma
(1988)
0.1596
Air-water,
spheres,
1.9 mm
Tosun
(1984)
1062
A. Bansal et al.
Figure 9. Parity plot for viscoinelastic liquid phase using Equation (13).
where K1 and m are model parameters. To evaluate N1 the method described

by Abdel-Khalik et al. (1974) has been used. The fluid characteristic time keff is
evaluated from the shear dependent viscosity data (s and N1 versus c_ ) and is
defined as:
N1
keff
15
2_cs
The shear rate c_ , evaluated at wall conditions of a capillary tube, is related to the
packed bed apparent shear rate, 8V0 =eDe , at the same wall shear stress by a shift factor of k2i (Kozicki et al., 1967),
c_ w
3n 1 8V0 ki
4n eDe 2
16
where ki is 4.17 using the Blake-Kozeny equation (Blake, 1922).

Viscoelasticity of the liquid phase is accounted for in terms of the Weissenberg
number, We, defined as:
We keff :_cw
17
1063
Figure10. Parity plot for viscoelastic liquid phase using Equation (19).
Correlation for Viscoelastic Systems

The effect of various parameters other than viscoelasticity has already been taken
into account while developing the correlation to evaluate L at transition corresponding to viscoinelastic non-Newtonian systems. For viscoelastic systems the dependence of L at transition on liquid-phase elasticity may be expressed as:

Lt;ve
1 AWeB
Lt;vi
18
A similar dependence has been previously used by Carlos et al. (1997) for flow of
viscoelastic fluid through a packed bed.
Using a nonlinear regression technique (the Nelder and Mead method), the
observed flow transition data on viscoelastic fluids were fitted to Equation (18),
yielding the following correlation constants:
p
A 2 0:123
B 2
R2 0.94, variance 0.0979, rmsd 0.0757.
1064
A. Bansal et al.
Thus the flow transition correlation for viscoelastic fluids assumes the form:

p
Lt;ve Lt;vi 1 2We2
19
where Lt,ve is the liquid phase transition velocity for viscoelastic fluids and Lt,vi is the
liquid phase transition velocity for viscoinelastic fluids predicted by Equation (13).
The parity plot between the experimental and predicted values for Lt,ve shows a good
agreement, and the data are found to remain within 10% (Figure 10).
Conclusion
Different flow maps and empirical correlations are available in the literature but none
of them seems to be applicable to the systems having different bed configurations and
different liquid phase properties. Based on the experimental observations the effect of
particle shape and bed configuration has been taken into consideration, and the
dependence of the physical properties of the liquid phase are reconsidered. While
developing the correlation equation the effect of bed configuration has been found
to be well represented by parameters S1 and S2. The correlation developed could
predict the data of different investigators with reasonable accuracy of 20%
(Figure 6) on the flow map as against the coordinates of Gianetto et al., where it
was within 150% and 50%. Further, the present correlation predicts the data
very well for viscoinelastic systems when liquid phase viscosity is replaced by
apparent viscosity. The present correlation has been extended for viscoelastic liquids
by introducing the Weissenberg number and predicts the flow transition up to 10%.
Experimental results obtained on large-sized packing materials with aspect
ratios less than 12 could be under influence of wall flow, and care must be taken
to use this data to predict the flow transition for such systems.
Acknowledgment
Financial support from All India Council for Technical Education, Government of
India, New Delhi under grant number F.NO. 8017=RDII=R&D - 617=19992000 is
gratefully acknowledged.
Nomenclature
A, B
a, b, c, d
as
CMC
dp
dps
constants in Equation (18)

constants in Equation (7)
specific surface area, m2 m3
carboxymethyl cellulose
effective particle diameter equivalent spherical particle diametersphericity of the particle dps/ , m
equivalent spherical diameter, i.e., the diameter of the sphere having the
same volume as that of the particle, m
d
De
dp e=1:51 e Dpc , equivalent diameter, m
Dc
e
column diameter, m
experimental value , Equation (9)

G
K
K1
ki
L
Lt,neural
l
MRQE
m
n
N1
PAA
PEO
p
S1
S2
V0
VG
We
superficial gas mass velocity, kg m2 s1

flow consistency index, Pa s
parameter, Equation (14)
constant, Equation (16)
liquid-phase mass velocity, kg m2 s1
Lt predicted by neural network correlation
(Larachi et al., 1999), kg m2 s1
characteristic length of the nonspherical particle or
diameter of the spherical particle, m
mean relative quadratic error, Equation (9)
parameter, Equation (14 )
flow behavior index
first normal difference, Equation (14)
polyacrylamide
polyethylene oxide
predicted value, Equation (9)
as dp =re

1
l=dps /
superficial liquid-phase velocity, m s1
superficial gas-phase velocity, m s1
Weissenberg number, Equation (17)
Greek Letters
c_
c_ w
e
k
keff
la
la
n, n0
qa
ra
s
/
w
u
shear rate, s1

shear rate at wall, Equation (16), s1
bed porosity
a parameter, Equation (2)
fluid characteristic time, Equation (15), s
viscosity of a-phase, Pa s
apparent viscosity of liquid phase, Pa s
parameters as defined by Equations (3) and (12) respectively
density of a-phase , kg m3
surface tension of a-phase, Nm1
shear stress, N m2
particle
sphericity
1=3
rW
rL
lL
lW
qW
qL
correlation parameter, Larachi et al. (1993)
Subscripts
exp
G
L
pred
t
ve
vi
w
experimental value
gas phase
liquid phase
predicted value
at transition
viscoelastic liquid phase
viscoinelastic liquid phase
water
1065
1066
A. Bansal et al.
References
Abdel-Khalik, S. I., Hassager, O., and Bird, R. B. (1974). Polym. Eng. and Sci., 14, 859.
Baker, O. (1954). Oil Gas J., 53, 185.
Blake, F. C. (1922). Trans. Am. Inst. Chem. Eng., 14, 415.
Blok, J. R., Varkevisser, J., and Drinkenburg, A. A. H. (1983). Chem. Eng. Sci., 38, 687.
Carlos, T., Zhou, J. Z. Q., Nicole, G., Fang, T. N., and Chhabra, R. P. (1997). Can. J. Chem.
Eng., 75, 843.
Charpentier, J. C. and Favier, M. (1975). AIChE J., 21, 1213.
Chou, T. S., Worley, F. L., and Luss, D. (1977). Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Des. Dev., 16, 424.
Christensen, G., McGovern, S. J., and Sundaresan, S. (1986). AIChE J., 32, 67.
Dudukovic, M. P. and Mills, P. L. (1986). Encyclopedia of Fluid Mechanics, ed. M. P. Cherminisoff, 9691017, Gulf Publishing, Houston.
Gianetto, A., Baldi, G., Specchia, V., and Sicardi, S. (1978). AIChE J., 24, 1087.
Goto, S. and Smith, J. M. (1975). AIChE J., 21,706.
Grosser, K. R., Carbonell, G., and Sundaresan, S. (1988). AIChE J., 34, 1850.
Iliuta, I. and Thyrion, F. C. (1997). Chem. Eng. Sci., 52, 4045.
Iliuta, I., Thyrion, F.C., and Mountean, O. (1996). Chem. Eng. Sci., 51, 4987.
Kozicki, W., Hsu, C. J., and Tiu, C. (1967). Chem. Eng. Sci., 22, 487.
Larachi, F., Laurent, A., Wild, G., and Midoux, N. (1993). Can. J. Chem. Eng, 71, 319.
Larachi, F., Iliuta, I., Chen, M., and Grandjean, B. P. A. (1999). Can. J. Chem. Eng., 77, 751.
Margaritis, A., Bokkel, D. W., and Karmanev, D. G. (1999). Biotechnol. and Bioeng., 64, 257.
Sai, P. S. T. and Varma, Y. B. G. (1988). Can. J. Chem. Eng., 66, 353.
Sato, Y., Hirose, T., Takahashi, F., Toda, M., and Hashiguchi, Y. (1973). J. Chem. Eng. Jpn.,
6, 315.
Satterfield, C. N. (1975). AIChE J., 21, 209.
Sicardi, S. and Hofmann, H. (1980). Chem. Eng. J., 20, 251.
Sicardi, S., Manna, L., and Banchero, M. (2003). In 6th Italian Conference on Chemical and
Process Engineering, 811 June 2003, Pisa, Italy, Associazione Italiana di Ingegneria
Chimica, Milan.
Tosun, G. (1984). Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Des. Dev., 23, 29.
Turpin, J. L. and Huntington, R. L. (1967). AIChEJ., 13, 1196.
Wanchoo, R. K., Bansal, A., and Kaur, P. J. (2004). Proc. 5th Int. Conf. on Multiphase Flow
(ICMF04), Yokohama, Japan, May 30June 4, Paper No. 101.
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Chemical Engineering Communications

Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed

AJAY BANSAL , R. K. WANCHOO & S. K. SHARMA

Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology , Punjab

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Chem. Eng. Comm., 192:10461066, 2005

Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle

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Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology,

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Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed Reactor

Flow Regime Transition

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Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed Reactor

Figure 1. Experimental setup.

Table I. Types of packing used

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All packing materials exhibited complete wetting.

TABLE IIa. Properties of liquid phases: Newtonian fluids

Surface tension, mNm 1

Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed Reactor

Table IIb. Properties of liquid phases: Non-Newtonian (viscoinelastic) fluids

Molecular weight of CMC 1 105; molecular weight of PEO 3 105.

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Table IIc. Properties of liquid phases: Non-Newtonian (viscoelastic) fluids

Molecular weight of PAA 8.7 106.

Results and Discussion

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Figure 2. Parity between Lt,exp and Lt,neural at transition.

Figure 3. Model predictions for air-water system (Grosser et al., 1988).

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Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed Reactor

TABLE III. Empirical correlations used for comparison

Blok et al. (1983)

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Larachi et al. (1993)

Larachi et al. (1999)

Neural network correlation

For Newtonian liquid phase:

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Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed Reactor

Figure 5. Regime flow map (Gianetto et al. 1978).

It is therefore worthwhile to develop an empirical correlation that may take into

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Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed Reactor

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With these constants, Equation (7) assumes the form:

R2 0:98, variance 43:75, rmsd 0:77.

Figure 6. Proposed regime transition flow map.

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quadratic error (MRQE), defined below, was calculated:

where e is experimental and p is predicted value of L at transition. MRQE values

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Flow Regime Transition in a Trickle Bed Reactor

Table IVa. Statistical comparison of different correlations with present data

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with these modifications the experimental data corresponding to regime transition to

Iliuta and thyrion

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where K1 and m are model parameters. To evaluate N1 the method described

where ki is 4.17 using the Blake-Kozeny equation (Blake, 1922).