Breakage of macroporous alumina beads under compressive loading: simulation and experimental validation

Catalyst carrier beads used in the oil industry experience various kinds of breakage during their residence time in reactors. These beads are highly p orous in order to have a large surface area and contain macropores to enhan ce the transport of the reagents within the beads. However, high porosity a nd the presence of macropores weaken the beads, and therefore an optimisati on of these parameters is highly desirable.,In order to analyse the influen ce of these macropores on the particle strength, the behaviour of the beads under quasi-static compressive loading has been analysed and compared for three samples with different macroporosities, The distributions of the sing le particle crushing strength and Young's modulus have been obtained for ea ch sample. The numerical technique of distinct element analysis (DEA) has b een applied to analyse the bulk crushing strength (BCS) of each sample. The BCS of one of the samples has also been determined experimentally and the results are compared with the predictions from:DEA in an attempt to relate the bulk behaviour to the single particle characteristics in order to ultim ately optimise the production of the beads.