Comparison of Various RANS Turbulence Models for Dry Bed Simulation of Rotating Packed Bed (RPB)

The potential of rotating packed beds (RPB) is currently being explored by researchers to intensify heat transfer in thermal systems, primarily in cooling towers. The RPB has originally been implemented in chemical industries as a replacement for giant columns for carrying processes like distillation, separation, and absorption. In a rotating packed bed, the water flows radially outwards by the centrifugal force (100–1000 times the gravitational force in conventional columns) generated by a spinning porous cylindrical rotor, and the air is directed to flow radially inwards in a counter-current direction by a blower. To close the gap in fundamental knowledge of RPB and promote research further to achieve process intensification in heat transfer systems, deeper comprehension of fluid dynamics is essential. In the present work, the dry bed flow of air was simulated in ANSYS Fluent software and various RANS turbulence models have been explored and compared. The CFD simulation has been performed for a wide range of gas flow rates and two rotational speeds 800 rpm and 1600 rpm. The simulation results have been validated with the results from experiments.