Compacity factor

It is important to note that the compacityfactor is defined by the ratio of the surface area offered to heat transfer over the volume of the reactive medium. The thermal performances are estimated from the product between this compacity factor and the global heat-transfer coefficient. Consequently, owing to the large value of this factor combined with the conductivity performances of the SiC material, the heat-exchange performances are expected to be very high, which can be noticed from the last column of this table. 

Influence ofthe Compacity Factor and of the Material of HEX Reactors... 

One of the major interests of the HEX reactor is to offer a large ratio surface to reaction volume. Therefore, even if most of the time the laminar flow regime is not suitable to enhance transport phenomena with a moderate overall coefficient, the heat performances are expected to be high, since the compacity factor is always large. This fact is clearly exhibited in Table 12.4, where the results relative to the various HEX reactors studied in our laboratory have been plotted. 

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