Patent ID: 7226568

Claim:
Apparatus for supporting and retaining particulate material in a radial flow vessel having inlet and outlet openings for a fluid to pass through the vessel, one of said inlet and outlet openings being in communication with an annular space defined on its outer side by an inner wall of the vessel and the other of said inlet and outlet openings being in communication with an interior of an axially mounted member whose outer surface has openings therein which are smaller than the particulate materials supported thereby, comprising: a ring of separate, hollow conduit members positioned against the inner wall of said vessel and arranged in a vertical direction to fill said annular space, said separate hollow conduit members each having an internal cross-sectional area defined by a pair of generally radially extending side wall portions and an inner wall portion integrally joined to each of said pair of generally radially extending side wall portions, wherein the inner wall is concave shaped, wherein the outer ends of said generally radially extending side wall portions of adjacent conduit members being in contact with said inner wall, wherein said pair of generally radially extending side wall portions on at least some of said conduit members being angled away from each other in a generally radially outward direction but at an included angle which is less than if they were truly radial relative to the axis of the vessel, wherein the included angle being sufficiently small as to permit individual conduit members to be moved inwardly relative to adjacent conduit members during an installation or replacement operation, and wherein said inner wall portions of said conduit members having at least a portion of their surface formed by screen members which have flow openings which are of a dimension less than the diameter of the particulate material which forms a uniform thickness particulate bed and which is located in an annular space between the inner wall portions of the conduit members and the outer wall of the axially mounted member.