Catalytic Reactor CFD Simulation by Eulerian Multiphase Flow, ANSYS Fluent Tutorial

Description

Description

The present problem simulates the flow inside a Catalytic Reactor using ANSYS Fluent software. We perform this CFD project and investigate it by CFD analysis.

The present model is designed in three dimensions using Design Modeler software. The present model is a cylindrical reactor designed vertically. The middle part of the model has four inlets for fuel injection and one inlet for the catalytic material.

The meshing of this project has been done with ANSYS Meshing software. The element number is 430586.

Catalytic Reactor Methodology

The present problem simulates the flow inside a catalytic reactor using ANSYS Fluent software. In the internal structure of this reactor, compressed air is mixed with the fuel spray into the reactor and the catalyst material to cause the reaction.

Therefore, in simulating this model, Eulerian multiphase flow is used. This multiphase model can solve momentum and conservation equations for each phase separately.

For this multiphase flow, three materials are defined; air with a density of 1.225 kg/m3 is introduced as the primary phase, fuel with a density of 10 kg/m3 and catalytic material with a density of 700 kg/m3 is introduced as secondary phases.

Airflow enters the reactor from the special air inlet in the lower part of the reactor with a mass flow of 4.095 kg/s, and catalytic flow with a mass flow of 409.49 kg/s enters from the middle pipe of the reactor.

Fuel enters through four reactor injectors with a flow rate of 81,898 kg/s through the middle of the reactor. Moreover, the standard k-epsilon model is enabled to solve turbulent fluid equations.

Catalytic Reactor Conclusion

At the end of the solution process, two-dimensional and three-dimensional contours related to pressure, the velocity of each model phase (air, fuel, and catalytic material), and the volume fraction of each model phase (air, fuel, and catalytic material) are obtained.

As seen from the pictures, airflow enters from the bottom of the reactor and mixes with the fuel flows and the flow of catalytic material entering from the middle of the reactor.