Velocity, temperature and conversion profiles in fixed bed catalytic reactors

Velocity and temperature profiles perpendicular to the flow direction were measured at the exit of a packed bed. The form of the profiles differed from that usually accepted in the literature. The temperature profiles showed two humps. They were simulated by means of a two-dimensional heat transfer model containing the local void fraction and velocity. The simulation of a reactor for a strongly exothermic process based upon a model accounting for radial void, velocity and temperature profiles is compared with the predictions based upon a less refined model which does not consider the effect of radial void and velocity profiles.