MASS TRANSFER WITH SURFACE REACTION IN ARRAYS OF CYLINDERS AT LOW REYNOLDS AND HIGH PECLET NUMBERS: FLOW PERPENDICULAR TO THE AXIS OF THE CYLINDERS.

Abstract

A problem of interest in the operation of trickle bed and liquid-fluidized bed reactors is convective transfer with surface reaction at low Reynolds and high Peclet numbers. The paper presents an analysis of the problem for flow across an array of cylindrical catalyst pellets under fast and intermediate kine tic regimes. The flow field is modelled by creeping flow hydrodynamics in  conjunction with free surface cell model. Diffusion boundary layer  equations are solved to obtain expressions for concentration  distribution, mass flux to  the surface, boundary layer thickness  and average Sherwood number.The effect of system parameters  such as Peclet number, Damkoehler number, and void fraction of the array on these quantities is numerically evaluated.