Real Tubular Reactors in Turbulent Flow

Chapter 8 combined transport with kinetics in the purest and most fundamental way. The flow fields were deterministic, time-invariant, and calculable. The reactor design equations were applied to simple geometries, such as circular tubes, and were based on intrinsic properties of the fluid, such as molecular dif-fusivity and viscosity. Such reactors do exist, particularly in polymerizations as discussed in Chapter 13, but they are less typical of industrial practice than the more complex reactors considered in this chapter. 

The models of Chapter 9 contain at least one empirical parameter. This parameter is used to account for complex flow fields that are not deterministic, time-invariant, and calculable. We are specifically concerned with packed-bed reactors, turbulent-flow reactors, and static mixers (also known as motionless mixers). We begin with packed-bed reactors because they are ubiquitous within the petrochemical industry and because their mathematical treatment closely parallels that of the laminar flow reactors in Chapter 8. 

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