Residence Time Distribution for Tubular Reactors

In the core of Chemical Engineering is the reactor design that includes most of all scientific disciplines. The reactor, in general, are treated ideally: mixed and plug-flow patterns. Unfortunately, it is observed in the real world a very different behavior from that expected. Thus, to characterize nonideal reactors is used, among others, residence time distribution function E(t), mean residence time tm and cumulative distribution function F(t). The aim of this present work is to determine in the Comsol Multiphysics a distribution of residence time of a tubular reactor that is used, didactically, in the Chemical Engineering Laboratory in Federal University of Parana. The results were compared with experimental dates that concluded the modeling of the reactor showed good agreement according to the correlation coefficient of 0.97. At last, it was purposed a modification in the reactor's geometry to take note with its hydrodynamic would get better.