ChcmicolEngineeringScience,1975,Vol. 30. pp. IOIS-1018. PergamonPress.

Printed in Great Britain

GAS-PARTICLE HEAT TRANSFER

COEFFICIENTS IN PACKED BEDS AT LOW
REYNOLDS NUMBERS

A. CYBULSKIt, M. J. VAN DALEN, J. W. VERKERK and P. J. VAN DEN BERG

Laboratoryfor ChemicalTechnology,TechnologicalUniversity,Delft,TheNetherlands

(Received 16August 1974;accepted 17February 1975)

Abstract-In packed beds of silicon-copper particles values for the Nusselt number were determined in the region of
Reynolds number Rep = 0.24- 0.63. The values were a linear function of Re, :

Nu, = 0.07 Rep

At the same time the effective thermal conductivity could be measured.

INTRODUCTION
Extensive research has been carried out to determine
the coefficients of interphase heat transfer in packed beds,
as reviewed in[l, 21. The larger part of these investiga-
tions covered the region of higher Reynolds numbers,
(Be, >50). The data for the lower Reynolds numbers,
however, differ very much from each other. The heat
transfer coefficients depend to a great extent on the
geometry of the particles, and this relationship is usually
not known due to the complexity of the system. For this
reason, those coefficients should be determined experi-
mentally for the system considered.
The purpose of this study was to work out a simple
method for the determination of the coefficient of heat
transfer between gas and solid phases for the low
Reynolds numbers. The fixed bed consisted of silicon-
copper particles which is of interest for the technical
production of silicones [ 1I].
tPresent address: Instytut Chemii Przemystowej (Institute of
Industrial Chemistry), Warszawa, Poland.
ExPRRIMEhTAL
The apparatus consisted of a drying column, a calming
section and a tube which contained the bed (Fig. 1). The
gaseous medium consisted of air, which was passed
through the devices. The drying column, 5Omm in diame-
ter and of length 250mm, was filled with silicagel. The
calming section was a tube of 40 mm i.d. and 150mm long;
it was surrounded by a jacket where cooling water of
constant temperature was pumped through. Glass beads
of 2.5mm in diameter were inserted in this tube; they
were supported by a screen of stainless steel wiring. Two
thermocouples (chromel-alumel “Thermocoax” of
0.5 mm e.d.) were fixed in various radial positions below
the screen, just above the bed. By cooling the sealing an
almost flat radial temperature profile of the gas at the
entrance of the bed was realised.
The tube containing the bed of silicon-copper particles
was made of copper, was 40 mm in id. and 150mm long.
The bed was supported by a screen. Two kinds of screens
were used: a sintered glass plate of about 0=5mm thick
and a stretched tissue of glass-fibre. It was found that in

cooler

calming section

bed

sintered glass plate

thermocouples

packing

c air out

Fig. 1. Apparatus to determine heat transfer properties of packed beds.

‘
1015
1016 A. CYBULSKIet al.

the first case erroneous results were obtained. The tube The eqns (l)-(3) were solved in the following way.
was fitted in a jacket with boiling water which was heated Let:
externally by means of electric heating coils. A ther-
mocouple to measure the wall temperature was fixed to Tg = Tw+ “3,{u.(5) . Jo(a.~)} (4)
the wall of the tube, about 2 cm below the top of the bed.
Seven thermocouples were placed below the screen at a and
distance of about 1 mm to measure the radial temperature
profile of the air leaving the bed; the temperatures were Ts = Tw+ ($,u.(Z) . Jotanp)} (5)
measured in various angular positions.
The mean diameter of the particles is O-111 mm. Further where u.‘s and u” ‘s are functions of 6 which are yet to be
details about properties of the particles are given in[12].
determined. The a. ‘s are constants which also have to be
MODEL FOR INTERPRJLTATION
OF
determined. The functions (4) and (5) fulfill the boundary
EXPERIMENTALDATA conditions (3a). From the boundary conditions (3b) it
A model is set up which will describe the steady state follows:
when a gas flows through a fixed bed with a constant wall
temperature, different from the temperature of the gas at Jo(a,) = 0, (6)
the entrance of the bed. The radial temperature profile at
the exit of the bed will provide the data on the gas-particle where a. is the n’th root of the above equation. From the
heat transfer in the bed for various gas flows. boundary condition (3~):
The following assumptions have been made to derive
the heat balance equations for both phases in the steady- To = Tw+ $,Iun(‘3,Jo(GP)).
state system:
(i) both, solid and gas phases are considered to be
continuous, From this and eqns (4) and (5) we derive:
(ii) physical properties of both phases are independent
of temperature, u (o)=2.(To-Tw)
n (8)
(iii) the fluid velocity is constant at any point of the bed, a. . WI”) *
(iv) disposition of particles within the bed is uniform,
(v) axial heat dispersion in the gas phase is negligible, From eqns (1), (4) and (5) it follows that:
(vi) radiation is negligible,
ub+i$.+.ai-St.(ae.L).(ofl-Un)=O. (9)
(vii) free convection is negligible.
Thus, the equations describing the heat transfer processes
are as follows: From (2), (4) and (5) we derive:

- St*(a,L). (Ts - TB) = 0 u::

(10)
U”=Nu,.(a,.L)ti’v”

where
j=l+ (LlR)‘.~*
Nu,,,. (a.. L)

The following set of boundary conditions applies: Substituting eqn (10) into eqn (9):

aT aT
d=“=O
p=o;o<5<1; ap ap (W ~{E,.v.“q=O (12)
p=l;O<tsl;Te=T,=T, (3b) where
Osp<l;t=O;Tg=Ti, (3c)
B,= 1 (13)
O~prl;f=O;~=O (3d)
Bz= &.a.‘+St.(a”.L) (14)

O~pal;l=l;$=O. (3e) 2

.a.‘+Nu,.(a..L) (15)

According to all existing data, recently reviewed by B~=B~.B,+NU,,,.St.(a,.L)* (16)

Gunn[3], radial dispersion of gases is negligible in the
range of Re, ~2. Therefore, the effective thermal con- Now, the complete solution is:
ductivity of the gas may be assumed as being equal to the
molecular gas conductivity. Thus, only h, and k, need to
v.=~{C.exp(ri.5)}. (17)
be determined.
 Gas-particle heat transfercoefficients in packed beds. 1017

Substituting eqn (17) into eqn (10): Table 1.

3 Run 0 k h Re N”
ri’ es
pzh C) P P
U” =
c((
-I -NU&l”.L) tj
>
.CI.exp(ri.k)
I
.

UW
“0.

I
(ks/c?h)

406
(kcdd&)

0.321
(kcallm

10.4
0

0.625 0.046

2 334 0.338 8.7 0.513 0.039

Combining eqn (8) and eqn (11): 3 282 0.350 7.3 0.433 0.033

4 234 0.317 6.2 0.359 0.028

5 165 0.311 4.2 0.253 0.019

6 160 0.300 4.2 0.244 0.019

7 247 0.336 6.3 0.379 0.028

8 296 0.345 8. I 0.454 0.036

Combining eqn (3d), eqn (3e) and eqn (17): 9 337 0.329 8.7 0.518 0.039

10 366 0.328 9.5 0.563 0.042

II 413 0.328 10.5 0.636 0.047

I2 392 0.344 10. I 0.604 0.045

13 354 0.347 9.2 0.546 0.041

and 14 320 0.346 8.3 0.493 0.037

IS 289 0.348 7.6 0.445 0.034

16 258 0.336 6.8 0.397 0.030

i{fi.G.exp(rJ}=O.
17 220 0.331 5.8 0.338 0.026

18 175 0.328 5.0 0.269 0.022

From the above eqns (17b), (18) and (19), coefficients Ci
can be determined. From eqn (17a) follows un ; eqn (10)
gives un so that T8 and T, can be calculated with eqns (4)
and (5).
The convergence of series (4) and (5) is very rapid; in all
cases considered the demanded accuracy (0.1’C) was
obtained by using fourterms series.
The values of heat transfer coefficients were evaluated
by minimizing the sum of square deviations of the temper-
atures calculated from eqns (4) from the experimental
temperatures of a gas leaving the bed:

A procedure of minimizing was based on the Powell

method[4].

4.RESULTSANDDMXlSSlON
10-l 100 10' 102
4.1 Gas-particle heat transfer coejkient - Rep

The results of experiments together with literature

concerning gas-particle heat transfer coefficients data are Fig. 2. Experimental results on heat transfer properties as a
given in Table 1 and Fig. 2 and can be correlated by the function of the Reynolds number.
equation:
where w =2-36 tSS’-2#‘and S =(1-c)“~.
Nup = 0.07 Re,,. (21) These differences may be explained by the fact that the
Ranz equation was derived for a single sphere in the
The parametric sensitivity of the target function (20) to h, Re,-range from 1 to Id and the Pfeffer equation may be
is very small; about 30% change in h, causes about 0.5% applied only for a viscous flow and thin or diffusional
change in the target function. It is difficult apparently to boundary layer on the surface of the particle, i.e. for high
determine hp with a high accuracy, especially where Peclet numbers and low Reynolds numbers.
radial temperature profiles at the bed exit are flattened the The Nusselt numbers from this work are of the same
region of low velocities. order as those calculated from the equations in (1):
The Nusselt numbers calculated from eqn (21) are much
lower than those from formulas, like the Ranz eqn (5):
Nu, = 6*(1-44*Pr’Rep ’
Nup = 2.0t 060 * Pr”’ * (Re,/e)‘”
for 5’ = 1 derived for the so-called “channelling” model of
or the Pfeffer eqn (6): the bed.
Compared to the results in[7-91 the experimental data
u - (1 - ,)5,3 l/3
show that the Nusselt numbers of this work are higher.
Nu, = 1.26 * * pr”3 * Rq,“’
(22)
W I They are lower, however, than those calculated in[lO],
including also experimental results of [2]. The comparison
1018 A. CYINJLSKI
et al.

is difficult, however, because of large differences in t effective thermal conductivity of solid, kcal/mh”C
measuring methods, mathematical interpretations and the k, molecular thermal conductivity of gas, kcal/mh”C
variety of systems investigated. Llength of bed, m
Rradius of bed, m
4.2 Effective thermal conductivity of the solid T, gas temperature, “C
Table 1 shows that the effective thermal conductivity of TO inlet gas temperature, “C!
the solid ranges from 0.30 to 0.35 kcal/m. hr. deg (0.33 * TS solid temperature, “C
0.03 kcal/m. hr.“C) and that it is independent on gas-flow TIV wall temperature, “C
conditions in the Rep-region investigated. I, should be u., V” functions eqns (4) and (5)
stated that the method presented is of satisfactory accu-
racy with respect to k,,. The parametric sensitivity of the Greek symbols
target function (20) to the effective thermal conductivity Y coefficient in eqn (11)
of solid is high; the 10% change of this parameter causes 8 coefficient in eqn (22)
about 50% change in the target function. E void fraction (bed porosity)
The reliability of the above data has been confirmed by CL gas viscosity, ns/m*
the measurements of k, for the bed with stagnant gas, dimensionless axial coordinate
reported in [12]. It results from these experiments that an : shape factor of the particle
average value of k., is about 0.34 kcal/m. hr. deg (repack- dimensionless radial coordinate
ing the particles caused a change of k,, from 0.30 to ratio of average channelling length to particle
044 k&/m. hr. deg). Therefore, the results discussed sup- diameter
port the validity of the model applied and the heat transfer
coefficients reported. Dimensionless groups
Our observation is in contradiction with the conclusions Nu,, (h,,Dp)/t, Nusselt number
of Littman and co-workers. They found that an increase Nu,,, (h,L)/k,, modified Nusselt number
in the Reynolds numbers from 2 to 50 causes a strong Pe (Gc,,,R)/kg, modified Peclet number
decrease of Ic,. It should be mentioned, however, that the Pr (cpep)/k,, Prandtl number
authors underlined the uncertainty of their data for the Re, (GD,)/p, Reynolds number
low Reynolds numbers range where the differences in k,, St h,/(Gc,,), Stanton number
are the highest.

NOTATION
REFERENCES
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[l] Kunii D. and SuzukiM., Id. J. Heat Mass Transfer 196710
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coefficients in eqn (12) Fundamentals 1%8 7 544.
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[4] Powell M. D. J., Computer Journal 19646 155.
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[5] Ranz W. E., Chem. Eng. Progr. 195248 247.
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