Due to porosity changes and to the nonslip condition at the wall, the non uniform po rosity profiles in packed beds exhibit steep maxima close to the wall. The govern ing equations of energy and mass conserva tion were solved for fixed bed chemical reactors including these profiles. Under the assumption of non uniform flow the problems become two-dimensional also under adiabatic conditions. In all cases the agreement between available experimental data and theoretical predictions based on realistic flow conditions is improved. In particular measured and calculated moving speeds of migrating reaction zones fit to gether very well for adiabatic fixed bed reactors. Also considerable improvements concerning multiple steady states, temper ature profiles and conversion rates were obtained in situations when the reactor was wall cooled.
In fixed bed chemical reactor analysis it is commonto assume uniform flow distribution within the bed. The reality however is different. Due to a change of the average porosity near the wall [ 1,2,3],(Figure 1.) -ε=1 at the wall -the flow velocity increases until close to the wall and is reduced again because of the non slip condition (Figure 2.) The artificial flow pro file is described by the Brinkman equation I =-150^ -L75 ρ »2 ψΙ.Α. Α. ( η iiL,àz a e 3 dp 2 9 £ 3 dp r dr 9 dr B.C. Ζ=0 : ρ=ρ 0 ;Γ=0: s 0 ; Γ « R : U = 0;