Additively Manufactured, Highly-Uniform Flow Distributor for Process Intensification

Abstract

Achieving highly uniform flow distribution is essential for the effective performance of many chemical process equipment, including reactors, heat exchangers, and separation columns. Non-uniform flow leads to hot spots, reduced conversion, and diminished efficiency. This study demonstrates the design and fabrication of a highly uniform flow distributor using additive manufacturing (3D printing), offering design freedom not achievable with conventional manufacturing methods.

The additively manufactured flow distributor was designed to deliver highly uniform flow to multiple channels or zones within process equipment. Experimental characterisation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were used to evaluate the flow distribution performance of the 3D printed designs. The results show that additive manufacturing enables the realisation of complex internal geometries that achieve significantly more uniform flow distribution compared to conventional distributor designs. The study highlights the potential of additive manufacturing as an enabling technology for process intensification, allowing the creation of optimised flow distributors that improve equipment performance through better utilisation of catalyst or reaction volume.

@article{mazur2019additively,
  title         = {Additively Manufactured,
                  Highly-Uniform Flow Distributor for Process Intensification},
  author        = {Mazur, Maciej and Bhatelia, Tejas and Kuan, Benny and Patel, Jim and Webley,
                  Paul A and Brandt, Milan and Pareek, Vishnu and Utikar, Ranjeet},
  year          = 2019,
  journal       = {Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification},
  publisher     = {Elsevier},
  volume        = 143,
  pages         = 107595
}