An Experimental and Simulation Study of the Hydrodynamics of a Linear Low Density Polyethylene

Loni Schober1, Ian Hulme1, Blake Chandrasekaran1 and Apostolos Kantzas1,2

1 Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 1N4, akantzas@ucalgary.ca.

2 Tomographic Imaging and Porous Media Laboratory, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

ABSTRACT

Over the past five years we have developed several non-invasive techniques to study the hydrodynamic characteristics of the gas-phase ethylene polymerization reactors. These techniques include x-ray digital fluoroscopy and pressure fluctuation measurements. In this study we have chosen a linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) to compare experimental results with results obtained from Fluent, a commercial CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) package.

Keywords Gas-solid fluidised bed, polyethylene, digital fluoroscopy, pressure fluctuations, CFD