Study on micromixing and reaction process in a rotating packed bed

The exploration on the microscale transport phenomena is of great significance to understand the mechanism of microscale mixing and chemical reaction in a rotating packed bed (RPB). In this paper, numerical investigation is carried out and compared with the experimental results. Two different scale reaction models are applied to simulate and the numerical result is in reasonable agreement with the experimental results. The fluid flow and the species transfer with a competitive and consecutive reaction are studied to obtain the evolution of the segregation index and flow field. Each environment changes and is updated continuously with the liquid film flowing outward, and the micromixing and reaction are influenced by the fractions p(1) and p(2) of different environments. It is evidenced that different factors such as rotational speeds, volume ratios and initial mixing concentration impose considerable influences on the micromixing and reaction processes. The micromixing time ranges about 5.2 x 10(-2)-1 x 10(-3) ms showing that micromixing performance in RPB is much better. The main product and by-product appear different evolution pattern along the package wires, which provide guideline for the optimization of RPB structure. The optimization on the RPB structure is provided and the simulation results clarify a deeper understanding on the micromixing and reaction features in RPB. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.