Numerical investigation of the inertial loss coefficient and the porous media model for the flow through the perforated sieve tray

First, the unit cell computation is used to analyze the detail flow structure within a single perforated hole, and the inertial loss coefficient of the porous media model is obtained. The value is very consistent to the empirical equations from the previous literatures. Furthermore, the gas flow within a small scale desulphurization tower is simulated. Compared to the numerical simulation by the real perforated sieve trays, the porous media model can provide very comparable pressure drop and velocity distribution with much cheaper grid resolutions. As the number of the perforated holes increases to a certain threshold, the approximation of the porous media model can become very accurate. However, the uniformity of the incoming velocity and the corresponding inclination angle could affect the accuracy of the porous media model. A more advanced porous media model should be developed in the future.