Pressure drop of structured packing in pilot column and comparison to common correlations

Packed columns are widely used in the chemical industry such as absorption,stripping,distillation,and extraction in the production of e.g.organic chemicals,and pharmaceuticals.Pressure loss and pressure drop correlations are of special interest when it comes to the hydrodynamic properties of a column.The pressure loss across the column is of interest in the design phase when the size of the blower to drive the gas stream through the column has to be decided.The loading point and flooding point are also influenced by the pressure loss and the area of operation is determined from these points.This work examines four different correlations on pressure drop.The correlations are(i)Ergun’s equation(1952),(ii)an improved version of Ergun’s equation by Stichlmair,Bravo,and Fair(1989),(iii)an equation developed by Billet and Schultes(1999),and(iv)an equation by Rocha,Bravo,and Fair(1993).The complexity of the correlations is increasing in the mentioned order,Ergun’s equation being the simplest one.This study investigates if the more complicated correlations give better predictions to pressure drop in packed columns.This is determined by comparing the correlations to experimental data for pressure drop in a packed column with 8.2 m of structured packing using water as the liquid and atmospheric air as the gas.Seven experiments were carried out for determining the pressure drop in the column with liquid flows varying from 0 to 500 kg·h^(-1).At constant liquid flow,the gas flow was varied from approximately 10 to 70 kg·h^(-1).The pressure drop across the non-wetted column was best described by the correlation by Rocha et al.while the pressure drop for liquid flows from 100 to 500 kg·h^(-1)was,in general,best described by Stichlmair’s equation.For an irrigated column,the highest deviation was a predicted pressure drop 69.6%lower than measured.The best prediction was 0.1%higher than the measured.This study shows,surprisingly,that for a system of water and atmospheric air,complicated correlations on pressure drop determination do not provide better estimates than simple equations.

Estimating Hansen solubility parameters of organic pigments by group contribution methods

The Hansen solubility parameters(HSP)are frequently used for solvent selection and characterization of polymers,and are directly related to the suspension behavior of pigments in solvent mixtures.The performance of currently available group contribution(GC)methods for HSP were evaluated and found to be insufficient for computer-aided product design(CAPD)of paints and coatings.A revised and,for this purpose,improved GC method is presented for estimating HSP of organic compounds,intended for organic pigments.Due to the significant limitations of GC methods,an uncertainty analysis and parameter confidence intervals are provided in order to better quantify the estimation accuracy of the proposed approach.Compared to other applicable GC methods,the prediction error is reduced significantly with average absolute errors of 0.45 MPa^(1/2),1.35 MPa^(1/2),and 1.09 MPa^(1/2) for the partial dispersion(δD),polar(δP)and hydrogen-bonding(δH)solubility parameters respectively for a database of 1106 compounds.The performance for organic pigments is comparable to the overall method performance,with higher average errors forδD and lower average errors forδP andδH.

Analysis of the thermodynamic performance limits of the organic Rankine cycle in low and medium temperature heat source applications

In this paper,an exploration of the practical thermodynamic performance limits of the organic Rankine cycle(ORC)under working fluid and cycle parameter restrictions is presented.These performance limits are more realistic benchmarks for the thermodynamic cycle than the efficiency of the Carnot cycle.Subcritical ORC configuration with four typical case studies that are related to temperature ranging from 373.15 to 673.15 K is taken into account.The ORC is defined by its cycle parameters and working fluid characteristic properties.The cycle parameters involve evaporation temperature(T_(eva)),condensation temperature(T_(con))and superheat degree(ΔT_(sup)),while the working fluids are represented by the characteristic properties including critical temperature(T_(c)),critical pressure(p_(c)),acentric factor(ω),and molar ideal gas isobaric heat capacity based on the principle of corresponding states.Subsequently,Pareto optimum solutions for obtained hypothetical working fluids and cycle parameters are achieved using multi-objective optimization method with the consideration of both thermal efficiency(η_(th))and volumetric power output(VPO).Finally,sensitivity analysis of the working fluid characteristic properties is conducted,and the second law of thermodynamics analysis,especially the applicability of entropy generation minimization,is performed.The results show that the current commonly used working fluids are widely scattered below the Pareto front that represents the tradeoff betweenη_(th) and VPO for obtained hypothetical fluids.T_(eva) and T_(con) are the most dominant cycle parameters,while T_(c) and ωtend to be the most dominant characteristic property parameters.The entropy generation minimization does not give the same optimal results.

Spectral/hp element methods:Recent developments, applications, and perspectives

The spectral/hp element method combines the geometric flexibility of the classical h-type finite element technique with the desirable numerical properties of spectral methods, employing high-degree piecewise polynomial basis functions on coarse finite element-type meshes. The spatial approximation is based upon orthogonal polynomials, such as Legendre or Chebychev polynomials,modified to accommodate a C~0-continuous expansion. Computationally and theoretically, by increasing the polynomial order p,high-precision solutions and fast convergence can be obtained and, in particular, under certain regularity assumptions an exponential reduction in approximation error between numerical and exact solutions can be achieved. This method has now been applied in many simulation studies of both fundamental and practical engineering flows. This paper briefly describes the formulation of the spectral/hp element method and provides an overview of its application to computational fluid dynamics. In particular, it focuses on the use of the spectral/hp element method in transitional flows and ocean engineering. Finally, some of the major challenges to be overcome in order to use the spectral/hp element method in more complex science and engineering applications are discussed.