Chemical Engineering Science, 1972. Vol. 27, pp. 1845-185 1. Per&mm Press.

Printed in Great Britain

Packed bed axial thermal conductivity

JAROSLAV VOTRUBA, VLADIMIR HLAVACEK and MILOS MAREK
Department of Chemical Engineering, Technical University, Prague 6, Czechoslovakia

(Received 26 November 1971; accepted 24 January 1972)

Abstract- Packed bed axial thermal conductivity has been evaluated from steady state packed bed
axial temperature profiles. Solid particles of different sizes, shapes and thermal conductivities have
been used for measurements, which covered large interval of Reynolds numbers, Ree(O.1, 101).
Empirical relation for estimation of Peclet number for axial heat transport, which includes effects of
all signiftcant heat transport mechanisms, has been obtained in the form

1
_=- k,lk, + 14.5
Pe.W
RePr d.(l+&j

INTRODUCTION of Peclet number for axial heat transport, which

AN ADVANCEMENT of mathematical modelling
of nonisothermal packed bed catalytic reactors
stressed the necessity for improved understand-.
ing of values of the effective thermal conductivity
and the effective diffusivity in packed beds.
Axial and radial mass transport as well as
radial heat transport in the packed beds have
been thoroughly studied both experimentally
and theoretically[l, 2,3,6,8,9, I I]. On the
contrary, only two experimental studies on axial
heat transport can be found in literature. The
authors [2,3] determined the effective axial
thermal conductivity of the packed bed in the
direction of flow, based on measured steady state
packed bed temperature profiles. Bischoff[ 1 I]
recently presented relation for calculation of
axial thermal conductivity based on the know-
ledge of radial effective thermal conductivity,
velocity profile and ratio of tube to particle
diameters.
The present work has been aimed at obtaining
large number of experimental values of ther-
mal conductivity in practical range of flow veloci-
ties (Ree(O.1, 107)). These data then would
enable to develop, on the basis of improved
methods of experimental data evaluation (non-
linear regression), general empirical correlation
1845
could be used for practical purposes.
EXPERIMENTAL
Experimental set-up used for measurements
of the axial thermal conductivity was in principle
similar to that used by Yagi[2]. To decrease
heat losses in radial direction, adiabatic packed
bed was placed in the tubular reactor (i.d. 26 mm)
with jacket; the jacket space was evacuated
and the walls coated with silver. For heat
generation an infra-lamp (250 W) was used.
The lamp was placed at the outlet of the reactor
in such a manner, that the heat flow was opposite
to the gas bulk flow. The reactor is schematically
shown in Fig. 1. The temperature profiles in
the axis of the packed bed were followed by six
thermocouples iron constantan, placed at a dis-
tance of 15 mm. No measurable radial tempera-
ture gradients have been found when the
thermocouple at a given axial distance was
moved in radial direction from the axis to the
reactor wall. The steady state axial temperature
profiles were recorded after steady state was
reached (approximately 1 hr after gas flow was
started). lndividual measurements were always
reproduced twice. Between the reproductions
the bed was re-packed.
 JAROSLAV VOTRUBA, VLADIMIR HLAVAkEK and MILOS MAREK

c / ) infrared
lamp

00 2 4 6 8
x Em1
t
gas in Fig. 2. Dependence of the axial temperature profiles on Rey-
nolds number (Re = 2.8,10+, 30.5).
Fig. 1. Schematic picture of the experimental reactor.

Alumina, ceramics, glass, duracryl, iron and
lead particles with diameters varying from 0.25
to 6.5 mm were used for packing.
EXPERIMENTAL DATA EVALUATION
Heat balance for the adiabatic packed bed in
the absence of chemical reaction can be written
in the form [ l]
d2T
k, dX2 - liipc,~dT = 0.
We have assumed that the usual requirements
for the validity of dispersion model are fulfilled
in our experiments. On introduction of the para-
meter E, 6 = x/dpr we can obtain general solution
ofEq.(I)intheform
T=C,+C,exp(Pe,.t)
where Pe, is the Peclet number for axial heat
transport. The aim of the statistical data evalua-
tion is to determine the values of Pe, from the
measured axial temperature profile T = T(t).
For illustration purposes Fig. 2 shows typical
temperature profiles measured for the glass
spheres with the dia. equal to 3.9 mm at the
values of Reynolds number Re = 2.8; 10.5,
30.5.
A modified nonlinear regression procedure
similar to that proposed for this type of func-
tions by Jacquez[4] was used for the estimation
of parameters in Eq. (2).
The method makes use of the fact, that when
searching for values of parameters C1, CP
and Pe, minimizing the sum of squares of
residuals, we shall obtain for the conditions for
minimum the set of three equations and in two
(1) of them C, and C, will appear linearly. These
two constants can be expressed analytically and
after inserting these constants back only one-
dimensional non-linear problem must be solved,
e.g. by the Newton method.
This procedure substantially reduces the com-
puter time necessary for the Pe, estimation.
For the first guesses of Pe,, which are required
(2)
for application of nonlinear regression technique,
the values of Pe, obtained from the linearized
form of Eq. (2) were used (in accordance with
the proposition made by Yagi[2]):
In (T - Tinlet) = In C, - PeHt. (3)
The values of Peclet numbers obtained from
the relation (3) were up to 50 per cent higher
than the corresponding values obtained on using
the above mentioned nonlinear regression pro-
1846
 Packed bed axial thermal conductivity

cedure. The sum of squares of residuals for the
relation (2) was for a typical run in the range of
0.1-20 for nonlinear regression treatment. On
the contrary, when the values of parameters
obtained from relation (3) were used, the same
quantity was up to two orders of magnitude
higher.
The estimated values of Peclet numbers for
axial heat transport are drawn vs. Reynolds
number in Fig. 3. Here the Peclet number is
defined as
pe,2p
e
and the Reynolds number as
Cd
f&.=---1!
P air-iron spheres and curve 2 for the glass beads.)
The values of gas viscosity used in (5) were
estimated for integral mean temperatures on the
basis of procedure described by Bird [5].
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
First, we shall compare the results obtained
with those given in two earlier studies of the
axial heat transport[2,3]. In Fig. 4 is schema-
tically shown the range of experimental results
obtained in this work (cross-hatched area)
together with the curves describing the depen-
dence of Pe, on Re found in literature[2,3]. It
can be seen that our results are in agreement with
(4) those of Kunii and Smith[3] (the curves denoted
4 and 5 correspond to the systems air-iron balls
and air-glass beads, respectively). The results
of Yagi[2] are in agreement with our measure-
ments in the region of low Reynolds numbers
(5) Ree(O*l,5). (The curve 1 is drawn for the system
The disagreement at higher values of Reynolds

1.0

PeH

10 100 Re 1000

Fig. 3. Experimentally determined dependence of Peclet

number for axial heat transport on Reynolds number.
0 glass-oxygen d,=3*9mm $ iron-air d,=5mm
0 glass-nitrogen d,=3.9mm 8 alumina-air d, = 3.4 mm
0 iron-nitrogen ,d, = 5.15 mm #glass-oxygen d, = 2.25 mm
Q lead-nitrogen d, = 2.25 mm U(glass-air d, = 2.25 mm
@glass-air d, = 0.45 mm c) sand-air dp = 0.25 mm
Qduracryl-air d, = 1.3 mm 0 glass-air dp = 6.5 mm.

1847
 JAROSLAV VOTRUBA, VLADIMIR HLAVAEEK and MILOS MAREK

Fig. 4. Comparison of experimental results on PeH with previous experiments. Region A- spheres, Region B -
Raschig rings 6.5 X 6.5 X 3 mm (ceramics) cylinders 5.4 X 4 mm (alumina), region C-irregular particles
d, = 0.5-2 mm.

number probably follows from the different
technique of data evaluation. The calculations
made for comparison purposes have shown, that
for the values of Reynolds numbers higher than
five, the value of the Peclet number obtained from
the linearized form (3) is usually lo-56 per cent
higher than that obtained from nonlinear regres-
sion. Hence we can conclude that the results
presented in this paper are in relatively good
agreement with both previous works [2,3].
It is obvious from the experimental values
of Peclet numbers (cf. Fig. 3) that these depend
on the thermal conductivity of the solid particles
and the flowing gas, on the particle shape and
diameter and, finally, on the product Re . Pr.
The dependence of the Peclet number on the
product Re . Pr and on the gas and solid particles
thermal conductivity is significant only in the
region of low Reynolds numbers, Re < 5, as it
was already shown by Argo and Smith[9] in
the case of effective radial thermal conductivity.
Similarly the dependence of the Peclet number
on the shape of solid particles is slight. The
effective thermal conductivity in axial direction
increases with irregularity of the surface of
the solid particle. As can be inferred from Fig. 4,
this dependence is fully negligible for the Raschig
1848
rings and cylinders (region B). However, the
same effect can cause the difference higher than
20 per cent for irregular particles with high
surface area (e.g. dried and further mechanically
not treated gels used for catalyst preparation);
this fact is in agreement with the data obtained
for the axial effective diffusivity [6].
The relatively significant dependence of the
axial thermal conductivity on the particle dia-
meter was already observed by Kunii and Smith
[3]. These authors, however, did not arrive at
any quantitative description of this effect.
In Fig. 5 the dependence of the ratio of the
effective thermal conductivity to gas thermal
conductivity @J/C,) on the modified Reynolds
number is plotted. The Reynolds number is here
defined as
Re
m
=%.!? (6)
P
where
&A Dte
(7)
6 [(1-~)(W4)+ll'
The above definition of Re helps to eliminate the
wall effects in the case of low ratios (D,/d,).
Qualitatively, it appears, that for Re > 5 the
 Packed bed axial thermal conductivity

surface area and also the total surface area of

the bed increases and the mixing in the region of
the narrowest packed bed cross-section is inten-
sified. Bischoff [ 111 explains this fact by nonuni-
formity of velocity field. However, because in
our experiments we did not follow the radial
velocity profile as well as the radial thermal
conductivity we were unable to verify his theore-
tical predictions on our data.
The effects of all the above mentioned vari-
ables on the value of the Peclet number were
included in the empirical correlation, formally
similar to that given for axial mass transfer by
de Ligny [6].

oL 50 150
1
-_=A+ CE G
100 Re m
PeH Re . Pr I+ (CJRe . Pr) (8)
Fig. 5. Dependence of (k,/k,) on modified Reynolds number
(Re,).
value of the Peclet number is directly propor- The values of constants C1, C, and C, were
tional to the particle dia., i.e. with the decreasing evaluated for the particular sets of data and are
particle diameter the value of the axial thermal reported in Table 1.
conductivity increases. With the decreasing The constant C, corresponds to the value of
particle diameter the number of contacts per &O/k,) (k, is gas thermal conductivity and k,O

Table I. The constants C,, C, and C, for empirical relation (8)

4 Constant in empirical relation (8) Graphical Interval

Solid particles (mm) D,ld, Ct C, C, Sum of sq. residuals E symbol ofRe

6.66 38.8 3.92 4.9 5.77 0.38

Glass spheres-oxygen 3.9 2.8-93.5
0.43 :
Glass spheres-oxygen 2.25 11.55 8.3 7.93 2.9 159 N 0.4-90.3
0.33 y
Lead spheres-nitrogen 2.25 11.55 29.8 4.14 0.0 11.35 0.33 8 1.7-22.7
Iron spheres-nitrogen 5.15 5.05 23.3 2.27 0.0 8.79 0.4 a 3.5-86.7
II.31
- __
Rasshig rings (ceramics) 6.5 x
-air, nitrogen 6.5 x 3 4o 19.6 2.07 11.4 0.621 0.49 +) 5.1-134.8
Glass spheres-nitrogen-air 0.45 57.77 27.5 22.41 0.0 68.8 0.27 0.31-3.4
0.35 0
Iron spheres-air 5.0 5.2 25.0 2.17 5.1 15.6 0.42
0.7-192.2
0.43 @
0.38
0.36 0.5-l 15.8
Alumina spheres-an 3.4 7.65 4.5 4.95 0.5 20.6 0.36 @
0.51 +)
Alumina cvlinders-air 5.6~4 464 7.27 2.61 3.2 3.283 0.49 1.5-84.8
0.52
Duracryl particles-air 1.32 19.69 34.2 11.35 2.9 43.82 040 &J 0.9-8.8
Sand-air 0.25 104.0 11.2 63.04 0.03 521.5 0.42 @ 0.2-l .03
Glass spheres-air 6.5 3.85 228.0 1.92 70.8 0.623 040 0 260-1000

+Given in Fig. 4 only.

1849
 JAROSLAV VOTRUBA, VLADIMiR HLAVAeEK and MILOS MAREK

the value of the effective thermal conductivity
of the packed bed without convective heat trans-
port) as can be verified by comparison of the
values of C, with those given for &O/k,) in litera-
ture[7,9, lo]. The constant C, is inversely
proportional to the particle diameter (cf. Fig. 6).
of Peclet number for axial heat transport can
be thus written in the form:
1 k,lk, 14.5
(10)
Pe, = Re . Pr + d, . (1 + (CJRe . Pr))
Here d, is in mm, and C, varies between 0 and
5 and can be obtained from Table 1. The cor-
relation describes the experimentally determined
dependence of the Peclet number on the Rey-
nolds number in the practical range of Reynolds
numbers 0.1-1000, dia. of the particles O-25-6.5
mm and the thermal conductivities of the solid
particles varying from 0.23 to 30.0 W/mC. The
quality of the correlation (10) can be judged from
Fig. 7, where the values of Pe, computed from

Fig. 6. Dependence of the constant C, (relation 8) on the

particle dia.

This dependence can be described by the

relation
J
C = 14.46 0.01 0.1 20
z- (9) %IlP
d,
Fig. 7. Plot of the values of Peclet number obtained from the
where d, is in mm. The value of the constant relation (10) vs. experimental values of Pe,.

C, varies from 0 to 5; only for the glass spheres the relation (10) are plotted vs. the experimental
with the diameter d, = 6.5 mm C, reaches high values. The points are close to the straight line
values, similarly as C1. This can be explained with the slope equal to one and the variance
by the fact, that the data were in this case around the line is low. For estimation of the
obtained for high Reynolds numbers (Re > 260) ratio (k,O/k,) the correlation proposed by
and hence the constants C, and C, which charac- Krupiczka[7, lo]
terise the region of low Reynolds numbers have
only slight effect. The empirical correlation k
A,>
k IOG%+O~75710~ E--005710g (s +)I
(11)
which can be used for the prediction of the values h kf

1850
 Packed bed axial thermal conductivity

based on the large number of experinental data thermal conductivity

k, of the solid
points can be recommended. particles, L-l . T-l . t-l . H
kf gas thermal conductivity, L-l . T-l
t- . H
NOTATION Peclet number for axial heat transfer,
PeH
integration constants, see Eq. (2), T see Eq. (4)
constants in relation (8) Pr Prandtl number Pr = (pcp/kf)
specific heat, M-l . t-l . H Re Reynolds number, see Eq. (5)
particle dia., L Re, modified Reynolds number, delined
tube dia., L in Eq. (6)
equivalent particle dia., see Eq. (7), L ii mean interstitial velocity, L . t-l
mass flow rate per empty tube cros- X axial coordinate, L
section, M . L+ . t-l _ .
effective axial thermal conductivity, Cireek symbols
L- . T-l . t- . H E bed void fraction, -
effective axial thermal conductivity, P gas density, M . Lm3
in the stagnant packed bed, cc dynamic viscosity, M . L-l . t-l
L-l . T- . t-l . H 5 dimensionless coordinate

REFERENCES
HI AEROV M. E. and TODES 0. M., Hydraulic and thermal basis of the operation of packed andjuidized bed appara-
tuses. Chemia, Leningrad, 1968. (In Russian).
VI YAGI S., KUNII D. and WAKAO N.,A.I.Ch.E.J/ 19606 543.
131 KUNIID.andSMITHJ.M.,A.I.Ch.E.JI1961729.
t41 JACQUES J. A. Math. Biosci. 1970 7 1.
[51 BIRD R. B., STEWART W. E. and LIGHTFOOT E. N., Transport PhenomenaWiley, N.Y. 1965.
WI DE LIGNY G. L., Chem. Engng Sci. 1970 25 1177.
KRUPICZKA R., Chim. Ind. Genie Chim. I966 95 (6), 1393.
;s; BISCHOFF K. B., Ind. Engng Chem. 1966 58 18.
[91 ARGO W. B. and SMITH J. M., Chem. Engng Progr. 1953 49 443.
[lOI KRUPICZKA R., Chem. Stosow. B 1966 III 183.
1111 BISCHOFF K. B., Can. J. Chem. Eng 1962 40 161.

Resume-Les auteurs Cvaluent la conductivite thermique axiale dun lit gami a partir des profiIs de
temperature axiale de lits gamis a letat stable. Des particules solides de differentes tailles, formes et
conductivites thermiques sont utilisees pour les mesures qui couvrent des intervales trts grands du
nombre de Reynolds Re ~(0.1, 103). Une relation empirique, servant a &valuer le nombre de Peclet
du transfert de chaleur axial, qui comprend les effets de tous les mecanismes importants du transfert
de chaleur, est obtenue par les auteurs sous la forme:

-=1 k,Yk, I 14.5

Pe, Re . Pr d,(l + C3/Re Pr)

Zusammenfassung- Die axiale W%rmeleitt%higkeit in Schittschichten wurde aus stationaen axialen

Temperaturprofilen im abgeschatzt. Fur die Messungen, die weite Bereiche von Reynoidsschen
Zahlen umfassten, (Re ~(0, I, 103)), wurden Partikel verschiedener Gross,, Form und Warmeleit-
fiigkeit verwendet. Eine empirische Beziehung Abschatzung der Pecletschen Zabl flir axialen War-
metransport, welche die Einwirkungen aller bedeutender W&metransportmechanismen einschliesst,
Wurde in der Form erhalten:

-=-1 k,lkf 14.5

% Re.Pr+d,(l+CJRe .Pr)

1851