Gas distribution in shallow packed beds

A shallow packed bed is defined as one where the bed diameter is greater than the packed height. Some shallow packed beds are more than 510 m in diameter. It is shown that gas distributors may be developed and evaluated in the laboratory by measurements of air flow through a geometrically similar model of the full-scale plant. A maldistribution factor is defined in terms of the velocity of the air emerging at 200 equally spaced positions at the top of the bed. Distributors are compared in terms of the packed height required for the maldistribution factor to reach its minimum value. In other experiments, measurements of the air velocity below and above the bed and of the static pressure variation within the bed show how a rotating gas flow below a packed bed produces a maldistributed gas flow within the bed and how increasing the depth of the bed reduces the maldistribution