Pressure drop of structured cartridges with fiber–glass catalysts

• Pressure drop in gliding-flow cartridges with fiber–glass catalysts was studied.
• Cartridge internal geometry influences the pressure drop significantly.
• ΔP does not depend upon the cartridge external shape and catalyst fabric structure.
• Equation for calculation of the pressure drop for different cartridges was proposed.
• Partial hydraulic anisotropy of the cartridges was found and studied.

The pressure drop in the structured cartridges with fiber–glass catalysts, providing the gliding flow of the reaction mixture along the catalyst fabric layers was studied. It was found that unit hydraulic resistance of such cartridges significantly depends upon the size of the flow passages and the geometry of the structuring gauzes, at the same, practically not depending upon the structure of the fabric and upon the external shape of the cartridge. The dependence of the pressure drop ΔP upon flow velocity v in all cases is close to the second order: ΔP = ζρv2L, while pressure drop coefficient in the cartridges with corrugated gauze practically does not depend upon flow velocity and may be described by empiric equation ζ av = 1744∗d−1.58 (m−1) where d – equivalent flow passage size (m). The structured fiber–glass cartridges with structuring gauzes were found to be partially anisotropic, with commensurable pressure drops in case of flow moving along the passages and across passages, but along the catalyst fabric planes, while the pressure drop for the flow perpendicular to the catalyst fabric planes is much higher.

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