The Impact of Joint Rotation Angle on the Performance of Mellapak N250Y

Structured packing elements are typically installed such that the channels of an element are perpendicular to the element above.  Previous studies by Owens et al. have shown that this leads to significant recirculation and stagnation zones for single phase flows; increased pressure drop was also observed.¹ In this study, different arrangements of Mellapak N250Y were tested using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to predict the dry pressure drop as a function of the joint rotation and gas flowrate. The computational predictions for the packing elements oriented perpendicular to one another were validated by experimental data.

1. Owens, S. A.; Kossmann, A.; Farone, J.; Eldridge, R. B.; Ketcham, R. A., Flow Field Visualization in Structured Packing Using Real Time X-ray Radiography. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2009, 48, (7), 3606-3618.