In the field of heterogeneous catalysis, additively manufactured so-called Periodic Open Cellular Structures (POCS) applied as catalyst supports have demonstrated their advantages over conventional randomly packed bed reactors in terms of heat management and pressure drop (Busse et al., 2018; Inayat et al., 2016). Since the internal flow field and the pressure drop are mainly influenced by the geometrical properties of the unit cell (unit cell type, strut diameter and cell size), the resulting transport characteristics of the structure is already determined during the design phase of the unit cell (Horneber, 2015). By inserting one POCS based on a diamond unit cell (offset structure) into the cavities of a second diamond cell structure (fix structure), a completely new type of so-called interpenetrating Periodic Open Cellular Structures (interPOCS) is formed which allows for an in operando adjustment of the global and local morphological properties of the structure (Do et al., 2017; Do et al., 2020). With detailed, spatially resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations using the open source toolbox OpenFOAM® (Weller et al., 1998) and an additional in-house random-walk particle tracking implementation called disTrackFoam (Trunk et al., 2021), we systematically investigated the local and global flow characteristics within the interPOCS in dependency of the relative positioning of the fixed and offset structure. The obtained results show that this highly adjustable structure allows for a broad variation of flow characteristics in a chemical reactor without changing the system’s periphery. This study demonstrates that interPOCS represent a completely new application of additively manufactured catalyst support structures enabling highly flexible in operando tuning of the flow field and mass transport in a heterogeneously catalyzed reactor system.

在多相催化领域，用作催化剂载体的增材制造的所谓周期性开孔结构（POCS）已在热管理和压降方面证明了其优于传统随机填充床反应器的优势（Busse等人，2018；Inayat）等人，2016）。由于内部流场和压降主要受单元的几何特性（单元单元类型、支柱直径和单元尺寸）影响，因此结构的最终传输特性在单元单元的设计阶段就已确定（霍内伯，2015）。通过将一个基于金刚石晶胞（偏置结构）的POCS插入到第二个金刚石晶胞结构（固定结构）的空腔中，形成了一种全新类型的所谓互穿周期性开孔结构（interPOCS），它允许结构的全局和局部形态特性的操作调整（Do et al., 2017; Do et al., 2020 ）。通过使用开源工具箱 OpenFOAM®（Weller 等人，1998）和名为disTrackFoam（Trunk 等人，2021）的额外内部随机行走粒子跟踪实现进行详细的空间解析计算流体动力学（CFD）模拟，我们系统地研究了 interPOCS 内依赖于固定和偏移结构的相对定位的局部和全局流动特性。获得的结果表明，这种高度可调的结构允许化学反应器中的流动特性发生广泛的变化，而无需改变系统的外围。这项研究表明，interPOCS 代表了增材制造催化剂支撑结构的全新应用，能够高度灵活地调节多相催化反应器系统中的流场和质量传递。