A fluid–dynamic model for flow pattern on a distillation tray

Abstract A fluid–dynamic model for describing the liquid-phase flow on a sieve tray with consideration of both the resistance and the bubbling effect created by the uprising vapor phase is presented, and solved numerically by the method of control volume. For verifying the proposed model, the liquid velocity distributions on a sieve tray were measured by the hot-film anemometry. The theoretical predictions by present model are in agreement with the experimental results by the authors and from the literature.