Modeling of the fluid dynamics applied to the evaluation of external mass transfer in a chemical reactor

M.O. BARBAGLIA; M.R. ESQUIVEL

Ciudad de La Serena - Chile

Congreso; Jornadas CONAMET/SAM 2004; 2004

Universidad de La Serena-Facultad de Ingeniería

In this work, the dynamics of the fluid occurring in a chemical reactor of fixed geometry is analyzed. The selected device consists in a cylindrical reactor containing a sample holder of the shape of a parallelepiped. The fluid modeled is Air at 300ºC for three different inlet linear velocities:  4.42.10-2, 4.42.10-3 and 4.42.10-4 m.s-1.  The velocity contour lines derived from the 2-D simulation are correlated to the mass transfer coefficient involved in a selected heterogeneous solid – gas reaction. The mass transfer coefficient derived for this system consists in three terms:  one that represents the mass transfer between the bulk gas and the top of the crucible and two that represent the mass transfer within the crucible.