MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR ESTIMATING THE RADIATION FIELD IN PHOTOCATALYTIC REACTORS.

This paper proposes a new approach for estimating the radiant field in photocatalytic heterogeneous reactors. The effective radiation field model was developed from the constitutive equations for emission and absorption of energy. The new model considers five components for the radiation energy balance: i) The net energy flux in the volume υ, through α surface in the system. ii) The total energy is absorbed by catalyst particles. iii) The loss of energy is by scattering. iv)The gain in energy is by scattering (a phase function of the scattered energy is required) and the net energy flux in the volume is through the reactor surface. The model is an integro-differential unidimensional function in terms of an arbitrary nondimensional variable χ, where α(χ) is the surface area of the reactor, κυ, συ are the average coefficients of volumetric absorption and scattering, respectively. The model was used for the radiation field simulation with Six Flux Model (for CPC reactor and TiO2-P25). The model allows obtaining good results and is faster than the rigorous solution of radiation field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]