Numerical Simulation of the Hydrodynamics of Two Phase Flow in Distillation Column Sieve Trays

The purpose of this research was to investigate the hydraulic parameters affecting the performance of the distillation column and the hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow field on the industrial scale-sieve tray using numerical simulation. Computational fluid dynamics method was used for analyzing and predicting flow behavior. The desired geometry including the space between two trays of the distillation column and the down comer region was considered. After plotting geometry, three dimensional grids were generated in Gambit software and the analysis of the flow field was traced in Fluent software. The Eulerian-Eulerian approach was applied to simulate two-phase flow and k-ε RNG model for turbulence modeling. Validation of the results was done successfully using Solari and Bell experiment data and the correlation presented by Colwell. The velocity distribution and volume fraction of liquid and gas in different zones were determined. The influence of inlet volumetric flow rate of liquid and gas, as well as the geometry of the weir, on parameters related to the tray performance such as clear liquid height and froth height were investigated. The results indicated that a better separation would occur in lower gas and liquid loads.