Catalytic Reactor: Eulerian Multiphase Flow

Catalytic Reactor CFD Simulation by Eulerian Multiphase Flow, ANSYS Fluent Tutorial

Description

This project simulates flow within a catalytic reactor using ANSYS Fluent. The 3D geometry was designed in Design Modeler as a vertically oriented cylindrical reactor, with four inlets positioned at the reactor's midsection for fuel injection, alongside a separate inlet for the catalytic material. The domain was meshed in ANSYS Meshing, totaling 430,586 elements.

Methodology

Within the reactor's internal structure, compressed air mixes with sprayed fuel and catalytic material to drive the reaction. Given the presence of multiple interacting phases, the Eulerian multiphase model was used, solving separate momentum and conservation equations for each phase individually.

Three materials were defined for this multiphase system: air, serving as the primary phase with a density of 1.225 kg/m³; fuel, defined as a secondary phase with a density of 10 kg/m³; and catalytic material, also a secondary phase, with a density of 700 kg/m³. Airflow enters the reactor through a dedicated inlet at the reactor's lower section at a mass flow rate of 4.095 kg/s, while catalytic material enters through the reactor's middle pipe at 409.49 kg/s. Fuel enters through the four midsection injectors at a combined flow rate of 81.898 kg/s. Turbulence was resolved using the standard k-epsilon model.

Conclusion

Results include 2D and 3D contours of pressure, along with velocity and volume fraction for each of the three phases — air, fuel, and catalytic material. The results show air entering from the reactor's bottom and mixing with both the fuel and catalytic material streams entering from the reactor's midsection, confirming the expected multiphase mixing behavior central to the catalytic reaction process taking place within the reactor.