Ergun Packed-Bed Pressure Drop

Split Ergun viscous and inertial pressure-drop terms visually from particle size, porosity, and properties.

visual calculatorPorous Media & Rheology

Read the flow shape before trusting the number.

This page turns a CFD setup into regime, scale, and dominant-effect cues. Adjust the calculator below and compare the moving graphic with the computed result.

input scale

model

check

Ergunpacked bedporous mediapressure drop

formula

KaTeX rendered

\begin{aligned}\text{dp/dz = 150 mu (1-eps)\^{}2 U/(eps\^{}3 d\_p\^{}2) + 1.75 rho (1-eps) U\^{}2/(eps\^{}3 d\_p)}\end{aligned}

ASCII source

dp/dz = 150 mu (1-eps)^2 U/(eps^3 d_p^2) + 1.75 rho (1-eps) U^2/(eps^3 d_p)

superficial U (m/s)particle d_p (m)porosity epsbed length (m)rho (kg/m3)mu (Pa s)

inertial share 97.0%

Re_p

1596.800

viscous dp/dz

1.703e+4

inertial dp/dz

5.469e+5

total dp/dz

5.639e+5

Delta p (Pa)

5.639e+5

Ergun is a strong first estimate for porous-zone source terms in packed-bed CFD models.

Ergun packed bed porous media pressure drop