Effect of a severe form of initial gas maldistribution on pressure drop of a structured packing bed

The results of an experimental study devoted to establishing the relation between a severe form of initial gas distribution, as created by a chordal blockage set-up used in a recent FRI study, and the hydraulics of a structured packing bed are presented. Both dry and wet bed experiments were conducted with air/water system under ambient conditions, using a 1.4 m i.d. Plexiglas column in conjunction with Montz-pak B1-250 packing bed of the approximately same length, employing liquid loads corresponding to that from the FRI study. From dry and wet experiments it appeared that chordal blanking of 30% of cross-sectional area at gas inlet can influence the pressure drop significantly, particularly that in the lower part of the bed.