Three dimensional calculations of the flow through packed beds

This abstract gives an overview about a numerical method for the calculation of the fluid flow through packed beds. A computer code which solves the three dimensional, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with an implemented Chimera grid scheme is modified in a way that the laminar fluid flow through the narrow gaps of the packing can be studied in detail. For the calculations with up to 500 particles and more (to approach a real reactor) a master/slave concept is applied to use the distributed memory of workstation clusters and MPP's. A comparison with empirical/analytical data given in literature, such as the pressure drop due to the elongation, shows good agreement. Future investgations focus to achieve detailed information about the flowstructure inside a packed bed.