Influence of inserts on the pressure drop distribution in randomly packed beds with uniform sized spheres in the endshield model of AHWR

• Hydrodynamic development length in packed beds of spheres is explored.
• Effect of inserts on pressure drop in packed bed for fully developed flow is studied.
• Influence of inserts on pressure drop in packed bed for disturbed flow is studied.
• Applicability of equivalent diameter approach for bed with inserts is investigated.

The effect of bed diameter to particle diameter ratio on pressure drop is studied and the hydrodynamic development length is examined by experiments with a test section having multiple taps in the present work. The pressure drop is measured in beds packed with uniform sized spherical particles having bed to particle diameter ratios of 5, 10 and 21. The pressure drop is measured for a particle Reynolds number ranging of 150–10,000 with water as a working fluid. The measured friction factor compares reasonably with the available correlations in the literature. In each packed bed, the mean void fraction is measured.In the present work, influence of inserts distributed throughout the packed beds is studied. The effect of a flow condition at the entry to the packed bed (fully developed flow and disturbed flow) on the pressure drop is investigated. The distribution of inserts lowers the pressure drop in packed beds due to channeling effect (increase in void fraction). The disturbed flow at the upstream region of packed bed with and without inserts has no influence on the pressure drop characteristics.