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Magnetic resonance imaging of structured packings
Publikationstyp
Conference Poster
Date Issued
2025-03-19
Sprache
English
Other Contributor
Citation
Jahrestreffen der DECHEMA/VDI-Fachgruppen Mischvorgänge, Hochdruckverfahrenstechnik und Mehrphasenströmungen 2025
Structured packings as internals play a crucial role to improve the fluid dynamics and mass transfer within thermal separation processes, such as absorption and distillation. By increasing the interfacial area between the phases, they improve the mass transfer, which potentially lowers the energy demand of these energy-intensive operations. To evaluate and optimize the design of a structured packing, detailed information about the liquid distribution within and the pressure drop over the packing are of high importance. However, due to the opacity of columns, the use of optical methods is impractical, making traditional studies reliant on integral experiments, like pressure drop measurements and collector experiments. While these experiments provide valuable global insights into structured packing efficiency, they lack of spatially resolved data over the column height. Tomographic techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), can overcome this limitation by providing detailed, non-invasive spatial information about liquid distributions inside the packing.
In this study, MRI measurements are used to investigate the liquid distribution in an MRI-compatible absorption column model with an inner diameter of 54 mm. We investigated two types of 3D-printed structured packings under varying liquid (water) and gas (air) loadings using a recently commissioned 3 T MRI-scanner located at the Hamburg University of Technology. The vertical orientation of the scanner allows for the measurement of setups up to 300 mm in diameter and up to several meters in height. For a 1000 mm tall packing bed, horizontal slices are taken in a central 110 mm section. The data are acquired with a spatial resolution of 0.5 x 0.5 x 1 mm3 and a temporal resolution of 1.3 seconds and provide detailed information about the liquid distribution within the packing. This study aims to demonstrate the advantages and limitations of using MRI for investigating processes in chemical engineering and assisting to validate and refine numerical simulations.
In this study, MRI measurements are used to investigate the liquid distribution in an MRI-compatible absorption column model with an inner diameter of 54 mm. We investigated two types of 3D-printed structured packings under varying liquid (water) and gas (air) loadings using a recently commissioned 3 T MRI-scanner located at the Hamburg University of Technology. The vertical orientation of the scanner allows for the measurement of setups up to 300 mm in diameter and up to several meters in height. For a 1000 mm tall packing bed, horizontal slices are taken in a central 110 mm section. The data are acquired with a spatial resolution of 0.5 x 0.5 x 1 mm3 and a temporal resolution of 1.3 seconds and provide detailed information about the liquid distribution within the packing. This study aims to demonstrate the advantages and limitations of using MRI for investigating processes in chemical engineering and assisting to validate and refine numerical simulations.
Subjects
Structured packing
Liquid distribution
Magnetic resonance imaging
Trickle bed
DDC Class
620: Engineering