With the gas flow rates of 5-25 m3·h-1 and liquid flow rates of 0.2-0.6 m3·h-1

the fluid mechanics performance of a Venturi gas-liquid distributor were investigated in a trickle bed reactor with an internal diameter of 28 cm. The Sauter mean particle size of the outlet droplets was measured with a laser particle size analyzer. The distribution uniformity was determined by using a liquid collection tray and special model tests were designed to test resistance to tray unlevelness. The results show that the Venturi structure enhances the gas-liquid mixing. Compared with the bubble cap type distributor

this distributor has a better droplet crushing performance. The increase of the gas velocity causes the outlet liquid changing from the umbrella flow to the jet flow

but it can still distribute evenly in the area where the diameter is approximately 10 times the diameter of gas-liquid outlet. When the gas and liquid loads are 10-20 m3·h-1 and 0.4-0.6 m3·h-1

respectively

the liquid level is between liquid inlets and gas inlets

the distributor has excellent performance of resistance to tray unlevelness. The computational fluid dynamics software is used to simulate the gas-liquid flow process inside the distributor

and the vector diagram of phase content and velocity is obtained

which is beneficial to the analysis and improvement of the distributor.