Packed beds of randomly distributed particles are widely applied in the chemical industry. Separation process, chemical reactors and drying systems are some examples of its application. Information about structural properties, fluid dynamics inside the system and heat transfer are fundamental for design and developing of this equipment. In this study, heat transfer inside packed beds of glass spheres with heat source located on the wall was simulated using CFD (computational fluid dynamics). Simulated results of temperature distribution inside the bed for several operating conditions were compared with experimental data and results from literature. Results indicate that modeling and numerical procedure used for CFD simulation resulted in a better approximation for experimental data when compared with previously tested modeling from literature.

CFD, heat transfer, packed bed.