Curved Structured Packing for Mass Transfer and Pressure Drop
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current structured packing designs for chemical and processing industries face challenges with pressure drop and mass transfer efficiency, often requiring compromises between surface area and fouling prevention, with designs remaining largely unchanged since the 1960s.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of a packing structure featuring a body with a plurality of sheets forming a continuous, curved fluid flow path that rotates around an axis, minimizing abrupt direction changes and maximizing surface area, thereby reducing pressure drop and enhancing mass transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If traditional corrugated sheet packing is used with abrupt flow direction changes, then manufacturing is simple and structure is easy to understand, but pressure drop increases and mass transfer efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional straight corrugated sheets with curved sheets that form smooth, continuous flow paths. The curved geometry eliminates abrupt 90° direction changes, allowing fluid to flow more smoothly through the packing structure. This curvature principle directly addresses the contradiction by maintaining manufacturing simplicity while dramatically improving mass transfer efficiency and reducing pressure drop.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a rotational dimension to the flow path by arranging curved sheets in a radial pattern around a central axis. Fluid flows along curved paths that rotate around the axis, creating a three-dimensional flow pattern rather than simple planar corrugations. This dimensional change enables continuous flow without abrupt direction changes, improving mass transfer while maintaining ease of manufacture through modular sheet assembly.
2Productivity
If high surface area packing is used to improve mass transfer, then mass transfer efficiency increases, but fouling susceptibility increases due to fluid channels being blocked by liquid
Solution Approach 1:
The curved sheet geometry creates continuous, smooth flow paths that prevent liquid accumulation and pooling. The curvature ensures that liquid is continuously moved along the flow path rather than stagnating in dead zones, thereby maintaining high surface area utilization while preventing fouling and channel blocking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates continuous flow paths through the curved sheets that eliminate dead zones and stagnant regions. Liquid continuously flows along the curved surfaces without pooling, ensuring that the entire surface area remains active for mass transfer while preventing fouling. This continuity principle resolves the contradiction by maintaining high surface area effectiveness without the fouling problems of traditional packing.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional corrugated sheet design with abrupt direction changes is used, then manufacturing is simple, but pressure drop across the packing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The curved sheet design replaces abrupt 90° direction changes with smooth, continuous curves. This curvature allows fluid to change direction gradually along the flow path, significantly reducing turbulence and pressure drop while maintaining the simplicity of sheet-based construction. The curved geometry is manufactured using the same corrugation techniques, preserving ease of manufacture.
Solution Approach 2:
By arranging curved sheets in a radial configuration around a central axis, the patent creates a three-dimensional flow pattern where fluid rotates around the axis while flowing through the packing. This dimensional arrangement distributes flow more evenly and reduces localized pressure drops compared to traditional planar corrugations, while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through modular assembly.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design reduces pressure drop and increases mass transfer efficiency by maintaining a uniform surface area and preventing fluid pooling, leading to improved performance in packed beds.
Implementation Method 1
a curved flow path that forms a fluid flow path that rotates around, and extends along at least a portion of, the axis of the body
Implementation Method 2
The purpose of packed beds is to increase gas/liquid interfaces and increase the mass transfer in absorption columns
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure provides a structure that is used in the treatment of a fluid. The packing structure comprises a body having an axis. The packing structure also has at least one curved flow path that rotates around, and extends along at least a portion of, the axis of the body.