Uncertainties in the simulation of catalytic distillation process: A systematic grid refinement study

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods are gradually finding applications in the simulation of distillation processes. In the discretization of the governing differential equations for the mass- and the energy-balance, finite volume method (FVM) is commonly employed. Upwind differencing scheme (UDS) and central differencing scheme (CDS) are most commonly employed in FVM to approximate the values of the variables on the control volume faces. The problems that arise while using these approximation methods are discussed here. These may be overcome by using a bounded linear deferred correction scheme (LDC). When solutions on more than one grid sizes are available, and the order of the numerical scheme is known, the exact solution may be predicted by using Richardson extrapolation technique. If the order is unknown, then the order of the scheme may be determined from grid refinement studies. However, for the determined order of the scheme to be meaningful, sufficiently fine grids must be used for these studies.