ENV 436 Unit Operations

Basic Information:
Course Coordinator name: Dr Ahmed Sherif Eissa
Course Coordinator Email: aseissa@gmail.com
Course Coordinator Mobile number: 01005806060

Number / week Day Time Location

Tuesday 11:50- 12:50 Room 154
Lectures 3
Thursday 8:20-10:30 Room 111
Contact hours
Tutorial 4 Tuesday 14:10-16:20 Room 127
Labs 0
Tuesday 13:00 – 15:00
Office hours
Thursday
Table of content
Week Syllabi topic No. of Activities*
hours

1,2 -Flow through porous media, Fluidization 4 Problem set 1 due week 3

-Fundamental of Mass Transfer, Steady State

Molecular Diffusion

3,4 -Settling 4 Problem set 2 due week 5

-Principles of unsteady state and convective

mass transfer

5,6,7 -Filtration 6 Problem set 3 due week 7

-Stage and continuous gas-liquid separation

processes

8,9,10 -Centrifugation, Cyclones 6 Problem set 4 due week 9

-Vapor liquid separation processes

11,12,13 -Bag filters, Mixing 4 Problem set 5 due week 12

-Liquid-liquid and fluid-solid separation

processes

14 Project Discussion and Evaluation 4

15 Final Exam 2
Flow Through Porous
Media
September 27th 2016
Text Book
Transport Processes
and Separation
Processes
Principles (Includes
Unit Operations) by
Christie Geankoplis,
4th Edition, 2003.
Pages 121-135, 224-
225, 903-953
What is Flow Through Porous
Media?
 It is the flow of fluid (liquid or gas) in a bed (or layer) of porous
structure. The applications of flow through porous media are
numerous such as:

Flow in Fixed Bed

Study of Flow of Water in Ground Layers
Reactors or Absorbers
What happens in the fixed bed?
How does a packed column
look like from outside?
Different Configurations of
Packed Columns
More Applications

Flow of Fluid in Sand Filters Oil Exploration and Production

Flow in Pipes
 The equation governing
the laminar flow of a
liquid in a duct of
circular cross section is
the Hagen-Poiseuille
equation, which takes
the form:
32  v L
P 
D2
p : Pressure drop, Pa
 : Liquid viscosity, Pa.sec
 D 4 P
Q  v : Average velocity, m/sec
128  L L : Length covered by the liquid, m.
D : Pipe diameter, m.
Laminar Flow in Packed Beds
 Porosity (Void Fraction)
Volume of voids in bed

Total volume of bed (voids plus solids )

The specific surface of particle

av (known as S as well)
Sp 6
av  
Vp Dp
a  av 1     1   
6
Dp
a is the total surface area in
the bed to total volume of
bed
Interstitial Velocity and Equivalent
Diameter
 Interstitial Velocity v
v`
v

Where v` is the superficial
velocity based on the empty
cross section of the container.
 Equivalent Diameter

D  4 rH
Cross Sectional Area
rH 
Wetted Perimeter
Void Volume

Total Wetted Surface
Volume of Voids / Volume of Bed  
   Dp
Total Wetted Surface / Volume of Bed a 61   
Equivalent Diameter, Reynolds Number
and Pressure Drop
 Equivalent Diameter
4 4
D  Dp
a 61   

 Reynolds Number for Packed Beds

D 4 D p v` 
N Re  
 61   

Removing the 4/6

D p v` 
N Re 
1   
Applying Hagen Poiseuille Equation:
P   
 
32  vL 32   L 72  v`L1   
v` 2

D2 4rH 2  3Dp 2
Pressure Drop and Tortuous Path
 Pressure Drop
72  v`L1   
2
P  ......but !!
 3 Dp 2

Liquid path is not straight, it is tortuous

150  v`L1   
2
P 
 3 Dp 2

This equation is valid only at laminar

flow conditions NRe <10 and porosity
of 0.5 or less.
What does this tell you about the
tortuous path length?
Pressure Drop
 Pressure Drop at Turbulent
Conditions
 v 2 L
P  2 f
D

Now, substitute for v` and De.

 v`2 L 6 (1   )  v`2 L(1   )
P  2 f 3f
 Dp 4 
2
 3Dp

Experiments indicate that 3f = 1.75.

(i.e. f = 0.583)for Re > 1000
 v`2 L(1   )
P  1.75
 3Dp
Do You Remember Friction
Factor in Pipes?
Pressure Drop at Turbulent Conditions
 Why the friction factor increased
so much from ~ 0.01 to 0.583
(more than 50 times) ???

This cannot be explained only by the

tortuousity !!
The main contribution to the pressure drop is
the kinetic energy losses caused by
channels cross-section and flow direction.
As the fluid passes between particles, the
channels become smaller then larger,
along with numerous turns. This behavior
causes most of the loss in kinetic energy.
Pressure Drop
 A general equation predicting the
pressure loss for the entire range
(laminar, intermediate and
turbulent) is obtained by adding
viscous losses and kinetic
losses:

 v`2 L(1   ) 150  v`L1   2

P  1.75 
 Dp
3
 3 Dp 2

It is called Ergun Equation

Ergun Equation
 From the previous slide
 v`2 L(1   ) 150  v`L1   2
P  1.75 
 3 Dp  3 Dp 2

An alternative form is:

150
fp   1.75
N Re

D p v` 
N Re 
1   
P Dp   3 
fp  
2 

L  v`  1   
Pressure Drop
 The void fractions for spheres, cylinders and
granular packing generally range from 0.3 to 0.6
depending on ratio of particle size and the
method of packing
 Vibrating the beds reduces the porosity few
percent lower than dumped packing
 Pressure drop may be a bit higher than the
predicted values from the previous equations, so
a packing factor is usually multiplied by the
pressure drop value to account for the higher
values