Investigation of the Cold Flow Field in a Flow Reversal Reactor through Computational Fluid Dynamics Models

Abstract

To optimize the flow field in a tubular reactor, new flow deflectors were added by using flow reversal technology. Two optimization structures, namely asterisk plate and composite plate, were designed. Numerical simulation was combined with physical experiments to verify the effectiveness of the flow field optimization. The results showed that the flow field uniformity of the reactor could be greatly improved by single plate and double plate. The uniformity index of the velocity in the axial section is greater than 0.95 within 15 cm, and the physical simulation results conform to the overall trend of the numerical simulation. However, the length of the optimized area of the single plate is about 5 cm shorter than that of the double plate, and it has better stability in the physical model.