Determinação de correlação empírica para predição de perda de carga em módulo de leito fluidizado

Abstract

Due to the wide application and advantages of the phenomena of flow through porous media in industrial equipments, the acquaintance and control of the process have great relevance in the scope of Chemical Engineering. Head loss is the main coast factor in fluidized bed industrial processes, thus representing an essential topic for the formation of the professional engineer. This study aims to determine the fixed bed head loss in practical classes’ module in the Laboratory Unitary Operations at the UFPB by experimental data and theoretical equations, establishing a mathematical equation which predicts the head loss as a function of the applied volumetric flow. For this, parameters of bed, column, particle and fluid characterization were studied. The head load results were obtained based on Ergun’s equations, were satisfactory in the theoretical determination of the parameters. Based on the experimental data, a polynomial equation was determined to predict the values of loss of charge as a function of the volumetric flows, which, despite a certain percentage variation between theoretical and experimental, showed a similar graphical behavior. In this way, the equation may assertively assist the student to determinate the head loss in the studied module in future experiments.