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Volume 117
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Structure of packed bed probed by Micro-Computed Tomography and Collision Guided Packing
Aashna Suneja a, Shantanu Roy a b *
a Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, 110016, India
b Indian Institute of Technology Delhi – Abu Dhabi, Zayed City, Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates
10.1016/j.partic.2026.06.042
Volume 117, October 2026, Pages 164-174
Received 24 February 2026, Revised 16 June 2026, Accepted 29 June 2026, Available online 10 July 2026, Version of Record 30 July 2026.
E-mail: roys@iitdabudhabi.ac.ae
Highlights

• Probed trilobe bed structures using Micro-CT and CGP models.

• Vibrated beds achieved higher density than central pipe packing.

• Trilobe particles attenuate wall effects within two diameters.

• Trilobes form more uniform bed structures than spherical shapes.

• Orientation analysis shows particles favor horizontal positions.


Abstract

Packed beds used in trickle bed reactors for deep hydroprocessing exhibit complex internal structures that govern fluid flow, conversion, selectivity, and secondary effects such as catalyst degradation and coking. While extensive research has addressed bed structure and hydrodynamics for spherical and simple cylindrical particles, trilobe-shaped catalyst particles among the most widely used shapes in industrial hydroprocessing remain comparatively undercharacterized, particularly with respect to high-resolution bed structure measurement and particle-resolved packing simulation. In this study, the structure of laboratory-scale packed beds of trilobe-shaped catalyst particles is investigated through experimentation and modeling under two different packing methods: central pipe loading and vibrated bed packing. Bed structure is measured using Micro-Computed Tomography (Micro-CT) and characterized through appropriate metrics. The bed-packing process is modeled using Collision Guided Packing (CGP), enabling a direct comparison between experimental measurements and simulation predictions of both the packing dynamics and the final bed configuration. This work addresses a specific gap in the literature on trilobe particle bed characterization and provides a rigorous basis for understanding the impact of packing method on bed structure, with direct relevance to deep hydroprocessing applications.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Trickle bed reactors; Trilobe catalyst particles; Micro-computed tomography; Particle orientation; Collision guided packing
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