INITIAL ESTIMATION OF HEAT-TRANSFER AND KINETIC-PARAMETERS OF A WALL-COOLED FIXED-BED REACTOR

A numerical method is developed for the initial guesses of heat transf er and kinetic parameters in a wall-cooled fixed-bed reactor accompani ed with side-stream analysis in both the axial and radial directions. The differential method is found to be the only way to decouple the he at and mass transport equations, and thus enables the estimation of th e heat transfer and kinetic parameters by separate steps. Compared wit h simultaneous estimation by the integral methods, the differential me thod possesses a unique advantage arising from the separate estimation of the parameters, because the parametric correlation can be reduced since the parameter number in the separate estimating process is less than that in the integral process. Numerical analysis and experimental studies reveal that the most appropriate method for presenting the ax ial derivative is by the Fade approximation, and that for the radial d erivatives is by the orthogonal collocation with one point. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd