A two-region, two-dimensional (2R2D)
model aimed at improving the
heat transfer description of multitubular catalytic reactors is introduced
here. The effects concentrated in the wall thermal resistance (1/h
w) of the standard 2D model (S2D model) are
distributed in a fluid channel from the wall up to a distance of half-particle
diameter and in the particle layer against the wall. The use of computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) on regular arrays allowed estimations of two
of the 2R2D key parameters: the heat transfer coefficient between
wall and core channels h
f and the “true”
wall-to-fluid coefficient h
wf. The 2R2D
and S2D models are compared at conditions when fluid mechanisms dominate
radial heat exchange and reversible or irreversible catalytic reactions
are carried out. The case of NH3 synthesis was taken as
a basis of comparison. Significant differences are obtained in temperature
predictions within the usual range of the tube-to-particle diameter
ratio, 5 < N < 10, mainly for irreversible
kinetics.
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