INTERPRETATION OF FLOW NONUNIFORMITY AND HYSTERESIS WITH A CAPILLARY ARRAY MODEL

A novel capillary array model is proposed to shed light on the development of themaldistribution of cocurrent downward gas-liquid flow and the hysteretic performance behavior in apacked column.The model is based on the principle of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and incombination with lateral random walk of elemental liquid rivulets.The liquid distribution over aone-dimensional array of capillaries is simulated and the basic features of gas-liquid flow in packedbeds are demonstrated.With proper correspondence of hysteresis branches with nonuniformity of flowdistribution assumed,the experimentally observed hysteresis in pressure drop,liquid holdup and masstransfer rate can be qualitatively simulated.Strenuous efforts are still required for further developingthis model into a predictive tool for the evaluation of performance of packed-bed type devices.