Hydrodynamics of Gas-Liquid Counterflow Through Corrugated Parallel Plates

Structured packings utilized in today's distillation packed towers consist of stacked units of many vertically oriented parallel corrugated plates. The V-shaped corrugations are oriented at a fixed angle with respect to the vertical direction, and the corrugation angle in adjacent plates are oriented in reverse direction. Points of contact, at the crests of the corrugations, between adjacent plates, form an unconsolidated porous medium with known topology. Modern structured packings have been gaining acceptance in several separation processes, particularly distillation where gas/vapor and liquid flow countercurrently through the packing. In addition, structured packings have been credited with relatively low pressure drop, high efficiency, low holdup, and higher capacity; the packing also can be made corrosion resistive.