Influence of wall corrugation on mass transfer in liquid catalytic reactors

In many catalytic reactors, a liquid flow is used to enhance the mass transfer to and from catalytic sites dotted on solid surfaces. Direct Numerical Simulations can be used to investigate this mass transfer, but the boundaries between the solid and liquid are necessarily treated as smooth on sub-grid length scales. In reality, solid surfaces are usually corrugated on length scales of micrometers. In this project we will perform a fundamental investigation of the coupled convection-diffusion-reaction mechanisms in the boundary layer near corrugated walls. This will lead to correlations for sub-grid-scale corrections to the mass transfer rates.

Project leader: Dr. Johan Padding