Pressure drop in packed beds with horizontally or vertically stratified structure

The paper concentrates on an experimental study of the pressure drop in double-layered packed beds formed by glass spheres, having the configuration of horizontal and vertical stratification. Both single-phase and two-phase flow tests are performed. The pressure drop during the test is recorded and the measured data are compared with those of homogeneous beds consisting of mono-size particles. The results show that for the horizontally stratified bed with fine particles atop coarse particles, the pressure drop in top layer is found higher than those of homogenous bed consisting of the same smaller size particles, while the measured pressure drop of bottom part is similar with those of similar homogenous bed. But for the homologous bed with upside-down structure, the stratification has little or no effect on the pressure drop of the horizontally stratified bed, and the pressure drop of each layer is almost same as that of homogeneous bed packed with corresponding spheres. Additionally, in vertically stratified bed, the pressure drops on the left and right side is almost equal and between those in homogeneous beds. It is speculated that vertically stratified structure may lead to lateral flow which redistributes the flow rate in different parts of packed bed.