Experimental investigation of the influence of a jet injection on the gas flow field inside a regular model packed bed

Industrial processes involving packed beds with gaseous flow are often associated with high energy and resource consumption. A detailed understanding of the flow behaviour within such systems is essential for optimizing performance. In this study, a regular, optically accessible polyhedral model packed bed with an additional side jet injection is employed to investigate two-dimensional airflow fields using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Experiments are conducted for particle Reynolds numbers ranging from 100 to 1000 through the vertical flow inlet, examining the flow within the packing and in the freeboard region above it. In the absence of a side jet, the flow patterns largely follow the geometry of the packing and repeat at similar positions along the bed height. A side jet with volumetric flow rates varied between 2 and 18 L/min, corresponding to jet Reynolds numbers from 1403 to 12624, is then applied to perturb the flow. It introduces significant horizontal velocities and leads to strong flow asymmetries and turbulence. The high-resolution PIV data enables a detailed analysis of the mean velocity fields and turbulence characteristics, quantified through the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). Turbulent structures emerge with increasing particle Reynolds numbers and, once formed, remain visible while only their intensity increases further. These findings offer quantitative insights to the interaction between structured packing geometries and turbulent gas flows. A comprehensive data framework for validation of numerical simulations and development of new experimental methods is provided with these results.