Numerical predicting of the effective thermal conductivity of a zeolite adsorption bed for thermal energy saving

Abstract

In this study, an innovative Random Particle Packed Adsorption (RPPA) method was proposed to reconstruct the zeolite adsorption bed, restoring the multi-level pore structure within and between zeolite particles through three packing methods: Quartet Structure Generation Set (QSGS), Simple Cubic (SC) and Face-Centered Cubic (FCC). The effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of the zeolite adsorption bed was predicted using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) and the results demonstrated a remarkable concordance with experimental values, especially for the SC packing method, with a maximum error of 7.3%. The results show that the QSGS packing method exhibited the highest ETC due to the largest volume fraction of zeolite. Furthermore, the ETC of the adsorption bed increases with increasing water absorption, temperature and zeolite particle contact ratio while decreasing with increasing porosity.

Cited as:

Gao, M., Zhou, N., Zhang, T., Zhu, C., Gong, L. Numerical predicting of the effective thermal conductivity of a zeolite adsorption bed for thermal energy saving. Computational Energy Science, 2024, 1(3): 127-137. https://doi.org/10.46690/compes.2024.03.01

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