CFD modeling of mass transfer in annular reactors

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigation of single-phase flow mass transfer prediction in annular reactors was conducted. Different hydrodynamic models including laminar, standard k–ε, realizable k–ε, Reynolds stress (RSM), and the Abe-Kondoh-Nagano (AKN) (a low Reynolds number turbulence model) were evaluated against experimental data in terms of their mass transfer predication capabilities. The laminar model predicted successfully the average mass transfer in the flows under laminar regime (Re < 1500). Among the four evaluated turbulence models, the AKN model provided a better prediction of the average mass transfer rates in the systems when operated both under transitional and turbulent conditions (3000 < Re < 11000). The RSM performed very similarly to the AKN model, except for the entrance region of the reactors where it predicted lower mass transfer rates. These results make the AKN and RSM models very attractive to be integrated in CFD-based simulations of turbulent annular reactors.