Intrapellet void fraction

The parallel-pore model provides an in-depth description of the void volume fraction and tortuosity factor Tor based on averages over the distribution in size and orientation, respectively, of catalytic pores that are modeled as straight cylinders. These catalyst-dependent strncture factors provide the final tools that are required to calculate the effective intrapellet diffusion coefficients for reactants and prodncts, as well as intrapellet Damkohler numbers. The following conditions are invoked ... 

However, the void area fraction is equivalent to the void volume fraction, based on equation (21-76) and the definition of intrapellet porosity Sp at the bottom of p. 555. Effectiveness factor calculations in catalytic pellets require an analysis of one-dimensional pseudo-homogeneous diffusion and chemical reaction in a coordinate system that exploits the symmetry of the macroscopic boundary of a single pellet. For catalysts with rectangular symmetry as described above, one needs an expression for the average diffusional flux of reactants in the thinnest dimension, which corresponds to the x direction. Hence, the quantity of interest at the local level of description is which represents the local... 

The intrapellet porosity or void volume fraction Sp is given by an average over the radial part of the distfibution function h(r). l en all cylindrical pores are oriented parallel to the x direction (i.e., perpendicular to the external surface), the angular part of the distribution function is spiked at 6> = 0, which implies that... 

The void area fraction in (21-76) is based on the fractional area in a plane at constant x that is available for diffusion into catalysts with rectangular symmetry. A rather sophisticated treatment of the effect of g 6) on tortuosity is described by Dullien (1992, pp. 311-312). The tortuosity of a porous medium is a fundamental property of the streamlines or lines of flux within the individual capillaries. Tortuosity measures the deviation of the fluid from the macroscopic flow direction at every point in a porous medium. If all pores have the same constant cross-sectional area, then tortuosity is a symmetric second-rank tensor. For isotropic porous media, the trace of the tortuosity tensor is the important quantity that appears in the expression for the effective intrapellet diffusion coefficient. Consequently, Tor 3 represents this average value (i.e., trace of the tortuosity tensor) for isotropically oriented cylindrical pores with constant cross-sectional area. Hence,... 

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