Realistic packed bed generation using small numbers of spheres

A method for stochastically generating three-dimensional, periodic, closely packed beds of small numbers (less than 50) of spheres is presented. This is an essential and integral part of realistic modelling of fluid flow and heat transfer through packed beds. In order to be able to reproduce the entirety of these complex geometries (in the radial direction) using small numbers of spheres, they are divided into two regions: the near-wall region (up to 4–5 sphere diameters from the solid wall in the wall-normal direction) and the core region. Near-wall stackings are doubly periodic and include a solid wall, while core stackings are triply periodic. A computational method for generating such geometries is presented for each region. Both are based on overlap removal methods. Results are compared against reference numerical data. Diagnostics used to evaluate the models include average packing fractions and coordination numbers, porosity profiles and distributions of the angle between two spheres which touch a common neighbour. Results are in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with the available reference data.