Tutorial: Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed

Reactor
Introduction
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide guidelines and recommendations for setting up
and solving 2D axisymmetric ow and heat transfer in a packed bed reactor.
In this tutorial, you will:
Use the porous media model in ANSYS FLUENT.
Use the physical velocity formulation for modeling ow through porous media.
Use user-dened functions (UDF) and a user-dened scalar for modeling thermal non-
equilibrium between solid (packing) and uid.
Set boundary conditions for modeling convective heat transfer.
Calculate the transient solution using the pressure based solver.
Display contours of velocity, solid, and uid temperature for visualization.
Prerequisites
This tutorial is written with the assumption that you have completed Tutorial 1 from the
ANSYS FLUENT 13.0 Tutorial Guide, and that you are familiar with the ANSYS FLUENT
navigation pane and menu structure. Some steps in the setup and solution procedure will
not be shown explicitly.
In this tutorial, you will use the porous media model and model convective heat transfer.
For more information on these functionalities, refer to the ANSYS FLUENT 13.0 Users
Guide.
You will also use user-dened functions and user-dened scalars for modeling thermal non-
equilibrium between solid (packing) and uid. For more information on these functionalities,
refer to the ANSYS FLUENT 13.0 UDF Manual.
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Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Reactor
Problem Description
The schematic of the packed bed reactor to be modeled is shown in Figure 1. Flow and heat
transfer through the reactor will be simulated as 2D axisymmetric model. The thermal non-
equilibrium between the solid (packing material) and the uid is modeled by solving a scalar
transport equation for the packing material temperature. The scalar transport equation for
determining the temperature distribution in the packing material is implemented through
the user-dened function, thermal-non-equ.c.
The reactor is 0.032 m in diameter and 0.25 m high. Air ows into the reactor via a top
inlet and is vented out to atmosphere. The air velocity is 0.2085 m/s and inlet temperature
is 320.15 K. The reactor is packed with 0.00683 m spherical glass particles and is heated
by a steam jacket. This maintains the external wall temperature at 383.15 K. The external
wall heat transfer coecient is estimated to be 70 W/m-K.
Inlet
0.25 m
0
.
0
3
2

m
Packing Size = 0.00683 m
Packing Material : Glass
External Heat Transfer Coefficient = 70 W/mK
Wall Temperature = 383.15 K
Outlet
Figure 1: Schematic of the Packed Bed Reactor
Preparation
1. Copy the les, reactor.msh and thermal-non-equ.c to your working directory.
2. Use FLUENT Launcher to start the (2DDP) version of ANSYS FLUENT.
For more information about FLUENT Launcher see Section 1.1.2 Starting ANSYS FLU-
ENT Using FLUENT Launcher in the ANSYS FLUENT 13.0 Users Guide.
3. Click the UDF Compiler tab and make sure that Setup Compilation Environment for
UDF is enabled.
The path to the .bat le which is required to compile the UDF will be displayed as
soon as you enable Setup Compilation Environment for UDF.
If the UDF Compiler tab does not appear in the FLUENT Launcher dialog box by default,
click the Show Additional Options>> button to view the additional settings.
Note: The Display Options are enabled by default. Therefore, after you read in the
mesh, it will be displayed in the embedded graphics window.
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Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Reactor
Setup and Solution
Step 1: Mesh
1. Read the mesh le (reactor.msh).
File Read Mesh...
As ANSYS FLUENT reads the mesh le, messages will appear in the console reporting
the progress of the conversion.
Figure 2: Mesh Display
Step 2: General Settings
1. Check the mesh.
General Check
ANSYS FLUENT will perform various checks on the mesh and report the progress in
the console. Make sure that the minimum volume reported is a positive number.
2. Scale the mesh.
General Scale...
(a) Select mm from the Mesh Was Created In drop-down list.
(b) Click Scale and close the Scale Mesh dialog box.
Conrm that the maximum x and y values are 0.25 m and 0.016 m, respectively.
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Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Reactor
3. Dene the solver settings.
General
(a) Select Axisymmetric from 2D Space selection list.
(b) Select Transient from Time selection list.
Step 3: Models
1. Enable the Energy Equation.
Models Energy Edit...
Step 4: Compile UDFs
1. Dene the thermal non-equilibrium condition between the packing and the uid.
In order to model this condition, you need to solve an additional scalar transport
equation. This scalar transport equation is dened using the user-dened function,
thermal-non-equ.c.
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(a) Compile the user-dened function.
Dene User-Dened Functions Compiled...
i. Click the Add... button in the Source Files section to open the Select File
dialog box.
ii. Select the le thermal-non-equ.c.
iii. Enter reactor-lib as the Library Name.
iv. Click the Build button.
v. Click the Load button.
(b) Dene an additional scalar by enabling the user-dened scalar equation.
The additional scalar represents the packing temperature.
Dene User-Dened Scalars...
i. Set the Number of User-Dened Scalars to 1.
ii. Select none from the Flux Function drop-down list.
iii. Select pm scnd order::reactor-lib from the Unsteady Function drop-down list.
iv. Click OK to close the User-Dened Scalars dialog box.
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Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Reactor
An information dialog box will open reminding you to conrm the property values
that have changed. Click OK.
In the thermal non-equilibrium model, you will only consider transient cooling
or heating of the porous matrix. Heat transfer by conduction is not taken into
consideration.
(c) Hook the UDF function.
Dene User-Dened Function Hooks...
i. Click the Edit button next to the Adjust.
ii. Select pm adjust::reactor-lib from the Available Adjust Functions.
iii. Click the Add button.
pm adjust::reactor-lib will now be available in the selected adjust functions
list.
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iv. Click OK to close the Adjust Functions dialog box.
(d) Click OK to close the User-Dened Function Hooks dialog box.
Step 5: Materials
1. Modify the properties of air.
Materials air Create/Edit...
(a) Modify the properties of air as per the following table:
Properties Values
Density 1.1
Cp 1010
Thermal Conductivity 0.0276
Viscosity 1.95e-05
(b) Retain selection of dened-per-uds in the UDS Diusivity drop-down list.
(c) Click the Edit... button next to the UDS Diusivity drop-down list.
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Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Reactor
i. Select uds-0 under User-Dened Scalar Diusion in the UDS Diusion Coe-
cients dialog box.
ii. Enter 1.84 for Coecient.
iii. Click OK to close the UDS Diusion Coecients dialog box.
2. Copy copper from the ANSYS FLUENT material database.
(a) Click FLUENT Database... in the Create/Edit Materials dialog box.
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(b) Select solid from the Material Type drop-down list.
(c) Select copper (cu) from the FLUENT Solid Materials list.
(d) Click Copy and close the FLUENT Database Materials dialog box.
3. Create a new solid material glass.
(a) Enter glass for Name and delete the entry for Chemical Formula in the Cre-
ate/Edit Materials dialog box.
(b) Enter 2250 kg/m3 for the Density.
(c) Enter 0 J/kg-k for Cp.
Cp is nullied to remove heat absorption by the packing material from the heat
transfer calculations. The packing material will conduct heat with the surround-
ing uid, but will not absorb any heat in this transient analysis.
(d) Select orthotropic from the Thermal Conductivity drop-down list.
i. Retain the default settings for Direction 0 Components.
ii. Enter 1.31 w/m-K for Conductivity 0 and 0.53 for Conductivity 1.
iii. Click OK to close the Orthotropic Conductivity dialog box.
(e) Click Change/Create.
A Question dialog box will appear asking if you want to overwrite copper. Click
No.
4. Close the Create/Edit Materials dialog box.
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Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Reactor
Step 6: Cell Zone Conditions
1. Set the cell zone conditions for zone1.
Cell Zone Conditions zone1 Edit...
(a) Enter packing as the Zone Name in the Fluid dialog box.
(b) Enable Porous Zone and Source Terms.
(c) Click the Source Terms tab.
i. Click the Edit... button next to the Energy drop-down list.
A. Set the Number of Energy (w/m3) sources to 1.
B. Select udf energy source::reactor-lib from the drop-down list.
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C. Click OK to close the Energy (w/m3) sources dialog box.
ii. Click Edit button next to User Scalar 0.
A. Set the Number of User Scalar 0 sources to 1.
B. Select udf uds source::reactor-lib from the drop-down list.
C. Click OK to close the User Scalar sources dialog box.
(d) Click the Porous Zone tab.
i. Ensure that Relative Velocity Resistance Formulation is enabled.
ii. Enter 1.41e+07 1/m2 for Direction-1 and Direction-2 in Viscous Resistance
group box.
iii. Enter 4181 1/m for Direction-1 and Direction-2 in Inertial Resistance group
box.
iv. Enter 0.423 for Porosity in Fluid Porosity group box.
v. Select glass in the Solid Material Name drop-down list.
(e) Click OK to close the Fluid dialog box.
Step 7: Boundary Conditions
1. Set the boundary conditions for inlet.
Boundary Conditions inlet Edit...
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Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Reactor
(a) Enter velocity-inlet as the Zone Name.
(b) Enter 0.2085 m/s for the Velocity Magnitude.
(c) Click the Thermal tab and enter 320.15 k for the Temperature.
(d) Retain the default settings for the other parameters.
(e) Click OK to close Velocity Inlet dialog box.
2. Set the boundary conditions for external-wall.
Boundary Conditions external-wall Edit...
(a) Click Thermal tab and select Convection from Thermal Conditions group box.
(b) Select copper from the Material Name drop-down list.
(c) Enter 70 w/m2-k for the Heat Transfer Coecient.
(d) Enter 383.15 k for the Free Stream Temperature.
(e) Click OK to close the Wall dialog box.
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Step 8: Solution
1. Set the solution parameters.
Solution Methods
(a) Select PRESTO! from the Pressure drop-down list in Spatial Discretization group
box.
(b) Select Second Order Upwind from the drop-down lists for Momentum, Energy, and
User Scalar 0.
2. Enable the plotting of residuals during the calculation.
Monitors Residuals Edit...
(a) Enable Plot in Options group box.
(b) Click OK to close the Residual Monitors dialog box.
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Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Reactor
3. Initialize the ow eld.
Solution Initialization
(a) Select velocity-inlet from the Compute from drop-down list.
(b) Enter 383 for User Scalar 0 in Initial Values group box.
(c) Click Initialize.
4. Save the case le (pbr-1.cas.gz).
File Write Case...
5. Set the iteration parameters.
Run Calculation
(a) Enter 10 s for the Time Step Size.
(b) Enter 200 for the Number of Time Steps.
(c) Enter 40 for the Max Iterations/Time Step.
(d) Click Calculate.
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Figure 3: Scaled Residuals
6. Save the data le (pbr-1.dat.gz).
File Write Data...
Step 9: Postprocessing
Display Contours...
1. Display lled contours of static temperature (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Contours of Static Temperature
2. Display lled contours of User Scalar 0 (Figure 5).
The dierence in the uid static temperature values and the values of the user-dened
scalar represents the bed or packing temperature.
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Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Reactor
Figure 5: Contours of User Scalar 0
Summary
This tutorial demonstrated the application of the porous media model in ANSYS FLUENT
for a packed bed reactor. In this tutorial, you used the physical velocity formulation and
modeled convective heat transfer for the packed bed reactor. You also used user-dened
functions and a user-dened scalar to model the thermal non-equilibrium between the solid
(packing) and the uid.
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