Unsteady State Heat Transfer in Packed-Bed Elliptic Cylindrical Reactor: Theory, Advanced Modeling and Applications

Transport phenomena through porous media has been of continuing interest for scientists, researchers and engineers due to the wide range of industrial applications. This chapter presents information about unsteady-state heat transfer and fluid flow inside of packed-bed reactors. The topics covered are related to fundamentals of porous media, chemical reactors, including mathematical modeling and applications. Emphasis is placed on packed-bed elliptic-cylindrical reactor. Based on the concept of local thermal equilibrium, a general mathematical formulation for a pseudo-homogeneous heat transfer model written in elliptic-cylindrical coordinates along with the numerical solution of the governing equation has been presented. Herein, an overview of currently-used models and the pertinent transient conductive transport processes inside the reactor were explored. A numerical example of heat transfer and fluid flow in a multiphase system (elliptic-cylindrical reactor filled with particles) was performed, and results of the temperature distribution inside the equipment at different instant of process are presented and discussed.