Investigation of flow through a computationally generated packed column using CFD and Additive Layer Manufacturing

• Monte Carlo methods used to create an artificial packed bed.
• Additive Layer Manufacturing (‘3d printing’) to construct geometrically faithful reconstruction for physical testing.
• Computational Fluid Dynamics validated on exact geometry.

When analysing packed beds using CFD approaches, producing an accurate geometry is often challenging. Often a computational model is produced from non-invasive imaging of the packed bed using 3d MRI or μ-CT. This work pioneers the exact reverse of this, by creating a physical bed from the computational model using Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM). The paper focuses on both experimental analysis and computational analysis of packed columns of spheres. A STL file is generated of a packed column formed using a Monte-Carlo packing algorithm, and this is meshed and analysed using Computational Fluid Dynamics. In addition to this, a physical model is created using ALM on a 3d printer. This allows us to analyse the identical bed geometry both computationally and experimentally and compare the two. Pressure drop and flow patterns are analysed within the bed in detail.