1. The Industrial Flow Modeling Group at the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, India conducts research on multiphase fluid dynamics and develops tools for chemical reactor engineering.
2. The group has published over 40 papers, secured over Rs. 1.2 crore in external funding, and has established experimental and computational facilities for their work.
3. Current activities include research on dispersed gas-liquid flows, bubble columns, trickle bed reactors, and collaborations with universities in France and the US.
1 of 17
More Related Content
Ifmg intro
1. Industrial Flow Modeling Group Vivek V. Ranade National Chemical Laboratory Pune 411008 Tel: 91 20 589340 Ext. 2170/ 2172 Fax: 91 20 5893260 Email: [email_address]
3. NATIONAL CHEMICAL LABORATORY Premier CSIR Laboratory in Chemical Sciences Catalysis Polymers Organic Chemistry Biotechnology 300 Scientific staff + ~ 200 Ph.D. Students Industrial contract research (GE, DuPont, Unilever, Akzo, ICI .) > 300 publications, > 100 patents (~ 30 US Patents) per year Chemical & Process Engineering
4. INDUSTRIAL FLOW MODELING GROUP Basic Research on Multiphase Fluid Dynamics ( DST, CSIR, IFCPAR ) Development of Chemical Reactor Engineering Tools (ReST, TRPro, MoBB, AnTS, RIAT, SPARE, FLUENT, AUTO ) Industrial Applications ( DuPont , Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Reliance Ltd., Herdillia Chemicals Ltd., Thermax Ltd., Fluent India Pvt. Ltd., BEPL, Spellbound, Praj Industries, Bajaj Auto Ltd., GAAC, GDIL )
5. RECENT iFMg PROJECTS FCC Regenerator ( IOCL ) Oxy-hydrochlorination Reactor ( Reliance ) Thermo-siphon Reactor ( Reliance ) SAN Co-polymerization reactor ( BEPL ) PET Finisher ( DuPont ) Suspension Polymerization Reactor ( Thermax ) Regeneration of DPO Reactor ( Herdillia ) Design of Carbonylation Reactor ( GAAC, DPG ) Chlorination of Acetic Acid ( GDIL ) Modelling of Stirred Reactors ( Praj, Fluent India ) Design of Hydrogenation Reactor ( Spellbound )
6. FACILITIES Computational SGI Origin 200: 2 R12k CPUs, 1 GB RAM SGI Origin 200: 4 R12k CPUs, 2 GB RAM SGI O2, Indy workstations and DEC Alpha workstation 1.4 GHz P4 machines with 1 GB RAM: 2 1 GHz PIII x 2 machines with 1 GB RAM each: 4 Other PIII & older machines: 5 FLUENT, AUTO, MATLAB, ODELIB, Numerical Receipes and other necessary software tools
7. FACILITIES Experimental Bubble columns (10 cm, 20 cm and 30 cm diameter); 10 cm and 20 cm diameter columns may be operated in continuous mode Stirred vessel facility (5 HP motor, 40 cm diameter vessel, several impellers) Trickle beds (10 cm and 20 cm diameter) Rectangular bubble column These cold flow facilities are equipped with flow metering instrumens and provisions to insert different probes (pressure sensors, conductivity probes, torque sensors and so on)
8. FACILITIES Experimental: Measurement Techniques Wall pressure sensors Voidage probes Torque sensors High speed camera (500 frames/s) Tied-up with BARC for carrying out radio-active tracer experiments for RTD and hold-up All of these measurement techniques use compueterized data acquisition systems. Except the camera, two laptops with independent PCMCIA cards are used. Camera is used with standard desktop PIII computer.
9. REACTOR ENGINEERING Optimize the Business of Transformations to Maximize Productivity What transformations are expected to occur? Chemistry/ Thermodynamics How fast these changes will occur? Reaction kinetics Transport processes (mixing, heat transfer, mass transfer) What is the best way to carry out these transformations? Hardware configuration / design/ operating protocols Raw Materials Value Added Products Chemical or Physical Transformations
10. iFMg MODELING APPROACH Evolve Detailed Wish List Occam s Razor : It is futile to do with more, what can be done with less Simple/ conventional models may provide adequate solution Conventional models must be used prior to CFD models One should always try to make things as simple as possible BUT NOT simpler Throwing baby with the bath water Match complexity of the problem with the analysis tool
11. BASIC RESEARCH: Main Contributions Multi-environment model for mixing sensitive reactions in turbulent flows Models to simulate influence of drag reducing polymers on turbulent reacting flows Computational snapshot approach to simulate impeller rotation in a steady framework without any adjustable parameters: extendable to multiphase flows Phenomenological and CFD models to simulate dynamics of dispersed gas-liquid flows CFD models to simulate hydrodynamics of trickle bed reactors
12. iFMg Reactor Engineering Tools ReST: Reactor Simulation Tool for fluid-fluid reactors TRPro: Tool for Regeneration Protocols for fixed bed reactors MoBB: Model for Bubbling fluidized Beds AnTS: Analysis of non-linear Time Series RIAT: Reactions in Agitated Tanks (mixing sensitive) SPARE: Sparged Reactors, general purpose multi-fluid CFD code FLUENT: Commercial CFD code of Fluent Inc., USA AUTO: Freeware tool for bifurcation analysis
13. SUMMARY of CONTRIBUTIONS 1 Book, Academic Press, September 2001 42 Papers in Journals (published/ accepted) 36 papers in Conferences 7 Workshops (Mixing, CFM) 8 Industrial contract research/ consultancy projects 5 Basic research projects Established state of the art computing facilities (capable of carrying out million node simulations) Established multiphase reactor laboratory with computerized data acquisition systems Established international collaborations (France, USA) 4 Major awards > Rs. 1.2 Crore external funding (received/ approved)
14. CURRENT ACTIVITIES Dispersed Gas-liquid Flows Cavities behind impellers Dynamics of bubble columns Development of measurement techniques Pressure probes Voidage probes High speed camera Radio active tracres CARPT Entrainment prediction/ reduction Coalescence-breakup models Snapshot approach for reactive mixing
15. CURRENT ACTIVITIES Gas-liquid Flow in Trickle Bed Reactors Eulerian models Inter-phase coupling terms Capillary forces Degree of wetting Liquid mal-distribution Development of experimental techniques RTD Visualizations Microscopic flow around pellets
16. CURRENT ACTIVITIES Gas-solid Fluidized Bed Reactors FCC riser reactor CFD model Reactor model Mixing cell model of complete FCCU Mixing cell model of poly-propylene reactor
17. CURRENT ACTIVITIES Collaborations: Professor Bertrand, ENSIGC, Toulouse, France Gas-liquid stirred reactors PIV/ LDV data Professor Dudukovic, CREL, Washington University, ST. Louis, USA Mixing in opaque multiphase systems CARPT/ CT data BARC Isotope Group Development of tracer techniques for multiphase reactors Fluent Inc., USA