Intensification of Droplet Dispersion by Using Multilayer Wire Mesh and Its Application in a Rotating Packed Bed

Liquid dispersion by impacting on wire mesh benefits many mass transfer processes. However, most of studies focused on the dispersion behaviors of liquid impacting on a one-layer wire mesh. In this work, the intensification of droplet dispersion by impacting on multilayer wire mesh was investigated, as well as considering the influence of surface wettability. The dispersion characteristics (cone angle of dispersion θcone and average diameter of daughter droplets davg) were systematically analyzed. θcone enlarged by 44% and davg decreased by 12% on average when increasing the water contact angle of the wire mesh from α-70° to α-155°. Empirical correlations for predicting θcone and davg were proposed. The predicted values agreed well with the experimental data. The intensification of liquid dispersion by using multilayer wire mesh was applied in the inner cavity zone of a rotating packed bed (RPB), leading to a significant improvement of gas-liquid mass transfer performance.