ENV 436 Unit Operations
Basic Information:
Course Coordinator name: Dr Ahmed Sherif Eissa
[email protected] :Course Coordinator Email
Course Coordinator Mobile number: 01005806060
Location Time Day Number / week
Room 154 12:50 -11:50 Tuesday
3 Lectures
Room 111 8:20-10:30 Thursday
Contact hours
Room 127 14:10-16:20 Tuesday 4 Tutorial
0 Labs
15:00 – 13:00 Tuesday
Office hours
Thursday
Table of content
Week Syllabi topic No. of Activities*
hours
1,2 -Flow through porous media, Fluidization 4 Problem set 1 due week 3
-Fundamental of Mass Transfer, Steady State
Molecular Diffusion
3,4 -Settling 4 Problem set 2 due week 5
-Principles of unsteady state and convective
mass transfer
5,6,7 -Filtration 6 Problem set 3 due week 7
-Stage and continuous gas-liquid separation
processes
8,9,10 -Centrifugation, Cyclones 6 Problem set 4 due week 9
-Vapor liquid separation processes
11,12,13 -Bag filters, Mixing 4 Problem set 5 due week 12
-Liquid-liquid and fluid-solid separation
processes
14 Project Discussion and Evaluation 4
15 Final Exam 2
Flow Through Porous
Media
September 27th 2016
Text Book
Transport Processes
and Separation
Processes
Principles (Includes
Unit Operations) by
Christie Geankoplis,
4th Edition, 2003.
Pages 121-135, 224-
225, 903-953
What is Flow Through Porous
?Media
It is the flow of fluid (liquid or gas) in a bed (or layer) of porous
structure. The applications of flow through porous media are
numerous such as:
Flow in Fixed Bed
Study of Flow of Water in Ground Layers
Reactors or Absorbers
?What happens in the fixed bed
How does a packed column
?look like from outside
Different Configurations of
Packed Columns
More Applications
Flow of Fluid in Sand Filters Oil Exploration and Production
Flow in Pipes
The equation governing
the laminar flow of a
liquid in a duct of
circular cross section is
the Hagen-Poiseuille
equation, which takes
the form:
32 v L
P
D2 p : Pressure drop, Pa
: Liquid viscosity, Pa.sec
D 4 P v : Average velocity, m/sec
Q L : Length covered by the
128 L liquid, m.
D : Pipe diameter, m.
Laminar Flow in Packed Beds
Porosity (Void Fraction)
Volume of voids in bed
Total volume of bed (voids plus solids )
The specific surface of particle
av (known as S as well)
Sp 6
av
Vp Dp
6
a av 1 1
Dp
a is the total surface area in
the bed to total volume of
bed
Interstitial Velocity and Equivalent
Diameter
Interstitial Velocity v
v`
v
Where v` is the superficial
velocity based on the empty
cross section of the container.
Equivalent Diameter
D 4 rH
Cross Sectional Area
rH
Wetted Perimeter
Void Volume
Total Wetted Surface
Volume of Voids / Volume of Bed
Dp
Total Wetted Surface / Volume of Bed a 61
Equivalent Diameter, Reynolds Number
and Pressure Drop
Equivalent Diameter
4 4
D Dp
a 61
Reynolds Number for Packed Beds
D 4 D p v`
N Re
61
Removing the 4/6
D p v`
N Re
1
Applying Hagen Poiseuille Equation:
P
v`
32 vL 32 L 72 v`L1
2
D2 4rH 2 3Dp
2
Pressure Drop and Tortuous Path
Pressure Drop
72 v`L1
2
P ......but !!
3Dp
2
Liquid path is not straight, it is tortuous
150 v`L1
2
P
3Dp
2
This equation is valid only at laminar
flow conditions NRe <10 and porosity
of 0.5 or less.
What does this tell you about the
tortuous path length?
Pressure Drop
Pressure Drop at Turbulent
Conditions
v 2 L
P 2 f
D
Now, substitute for v` and De.
v`2 L 6 (1 ) v`2 L(1 )
P 2 f 3f
Dp 4
2
3Dp
Experiments indicate that 3f = 1.75.
(i.e. f = 0.583)for Re > 1000
v`2 L(1 )
P 1.75
3 Dp
Do You Remember Friction
Factor in Pipes?
Pressure Drop at Turbulent Conditions
Why the friction factor increased
so much from ~ 0.01 to 0.583
(more than 50 times) ???
This cannot be explained only by the
tortuousity !!
The main contribution to the pressure drop is
the kinetic energy losses caused by
channels cross-section and flow direction.
As the fluid passes between particles, the
channels become smaller then larger,
along with numerous turns. This behavior
causes most of the loss in kinetic energy.
Pressure Drop
A general equation predicting the
pressure loss for the entire range
(laminar, intermediate and
turbulent) is obtained by adding
viscous losses and kinetic
losses:
v`2 L(1 ) 150 v`L1 2
P 1.75
Dp
3
3Dp 2
It is called Ergun Equation
Ergun Equation
From the previous slide
v`2 L(1 ) 150 v`L1
2
P 1.75
3Dp 3Dp
2
An alternative form is:
150
fp 1.75
N Re
D p v`
N Re
1
P Dp 3
fp
2
L v` 1
Pressure Drop
The void fractions for spheres, cylinders and
granular packing generally range from 0.3 to 0.6
depending on ratio of particle size and the
method of packing
Vibrating the beds reduces the porosity few
percent lower than dumped packing
Pressure drop may be a bit higher than the
predicted values from the previous equations, so
a packing factor is usually multiplied by the
pressure drop value to account for the higher
values