Friction factor for water flow through packed beds of spherical and non-spherical particles

Abstract

The aim of this work was the experimental evaluation of different friction factor correlations for water flow through packed beds of spherical and non-spherical particles at ambient temperature. The experiments were performed by measuring the pressure drop across the bed. Packed beds made of monosized glass spherical particles of seven different diameters were used, as well as beds made of 16 fractions of quartz filtration sand obtained by sieving (polydisperse non-spherical particles). The range of bed voidages was 0.359-0.486, while the range of bed particle Reynolds numbers was from 0.3 to 286 for spherical particles and from 0.1 to 50 for non-spherical particles. The obtained results were compared using a number of available literature correlations. In order to improve the correlation results for spherical particles, a new simple equation was proposed in the form of Ergun's equation, with modified coefficients. The new correlation had a mean absolute deviation between experimental and calculated values of pressure drop of 9.04%. For non-spherical quartz filtration sand particles the best fit was obtained using Ergun's equation, with a mean absolute deviation of 10.36%. Surface-volume diameter (dsv) necessary for correlating the data for filtration sand particles was calculated based on correlations for d(v) = f(d(m)) and psi = f(d(m)).