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Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received July 18, 2008
Accepted September 25, 2008

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Numerical and experimental investigation on a new modified valve in a valve tray column

Asghar Alizadehdakhel Masoud Rahimi^† Ammar Abdulaziz Alsairafi¹

CFD Research Center, Chemical Engineering Department, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran ¹Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, Kuwait

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, March 2009, 26(2), 475-484(10), 10.1007/s11814-009-0081-2

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Abstract

This paper reports experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling studies on the performance of three modified valves operating in a valve tray column. The original and modified valves including vnotched, warped and double-valve are tested experimentally. The experimental rig was a Perspex column having a single valve equipped with a fluctuating plate to measure the quality of gas distribution by using laser sensors. Two-stage nested designs were employed to show the repeatability and consistency of the measurements. In the CFD modeling, the volume of fluid (VOF) method was used to model the gas-liquid two-phase flow inside the column. A good agreement was observed between experimental data and the CFD predictions. The results showed that the double-valve layout provides a better gas distribution, smaller bubbles with greater interface area and lower pressure drop in comparison with the original and the two other modified valves.

Keywords

Valve Tray CFD Hydrodynamics Multiphase Flow Bubble

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