A novel method for synthetic packed bed generation considering catalyst pellet fragments

Random packed bed reactors for heterogeneous catalysis are crucial for the chemical industry. The occurrence of mechanical catalyst pellet failure is commonly known, yet its consequences have hardly been scientifically investigated. To enable a simulative investigation of the influence of catalyst pellet breakage on reactor performance, a novel method for the synthetic generation of packed bed structures is presented. The method consists of the creation of digital particle fragments, the characterization and selection of suitable fragments, as well as the subsequent synthetic packed bed generation. Instead of modeling the breakage process, digital particle fragments are selected prior to the packed bed generation via the PECH α algorithm. The packed bed generation itself is carried out in the open-source software Blender® 4.0.2 and Python. For the technically relevant range of breakage fractions 0 . 0 ≤ w B ≤ 0 . 3 , sufficient agreement between the overall bed void fractions of synthetic and experimental packed beds was found. Furthermore, flow through those bed structures was simulated with particle-resolved computational fluid dynamics (PRCFD). The pressure drop attained by PRCFD simulations agrees well with the experimental data. • Novel method for synthetic packed bed generation considering catalyst pellet fragments based on experimental data. • Validation with experimental data of overall bed void fraction and pressure drop. • Enabling PRCFD investigation of the influence of catalyst pellet breakage on pressure drop.