Wall effect in laminar flow of non-Newtonian fluid through a packed bed

Experiments were conducted on laminar Row of non-Newtonian fluid through a packed bed of low column to packing particle diameter ratio (3.8) to elucid ate the wall effect on pressure drop and mass flux. Carboxy methyl cellulos e (CMC) at different concentrations was passed through the packed bed and t he pressure drop was measured at different CMC concentrations and flow rate s. It was found that the pressure drop increases with the increase in CMC f low rate. The pressure drop also increases with the increase in CMC concent ration for a given Row rate. The friction factor is plotted against Reynold s number and the data for different CMC concentration are found to be scatt ered around a line expressed as f = 1.03/Re-0.87. The tri-regional model of Cohen and Metzner [1] predicted correctly the mass flux in the packed bed at different pressure drop values and CMC concentrations with parameters KD (related to pore geometry) value of 1.5 and L-e/L (related to effective pa th length) value of 1.2, respectively. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All r ights reserved.