Prediction of flow pattern and hydraulics of commercial –scale tray with stationary valve using computational fluid dynamics

In a cross gas-liquid contact tower, liquid moves across tray while gas flows up through opening in the trays. Many crossflow trays are simple sieve trays .Some trays have valves associated with the tray opening, and others have fixed deflector. In this study the flow pattern and hydraulics of stationary valves which is known as Mini V-Grid MVG tray, is predicted with computational fluid dynamics. The gas and liquid phases are modeled in a 3-D CFD in the Eulerian framework as two interpenetrating phases. Velocity distributions, clear liquid height, and liquid hold up fraction in froth were investigated for various gas flow rates at constant liquid rate. The results of MVG tray is compared with sieve tray. The tray geometry and operating conditions were based on Solari and Bell (1986) sieve tray air-water simulator with 1.213-m diameter and for MVG tray only the tray openings differ from it. The simulation results of sieve tray have a good agreement with experimental data of Solari and Bell (1986).The simulation results show that the clear liquid height and pressure drop of MVG tray is lower than sieve tray. The efficiency of MVG tray is higher than sieve tray therefore it can be used extensively in industrial application which is important conclusion of this study.