Flow regime maps for flow of liquid through downcomer in a turbulent bed contactor

The provision of a downcomer to classical turbulent bed Contactor (TBC) increases the gas treating capacity of the equipment. When the downcomer is provided, it is expected that all the liquid passes through the downcomer only without any liquid flow through the distributor. In the present study, the operational regime for the flow of liquid only through the downcomer is experimentally evaluated for various geometric parameters and particle characteristics. It is observed that the preferred operational regime without dumping and weeping increases with an increase in Archimedes number and downcomer diameter, and decreases with an increase in static bed height and downcomer weir height. Correlations are proposed to satisfactorily predict experimentally observed operational regime.