AbstractKnowledge of transport processes is of considerable practical importance in the design and performance evaluation of packed bed reactor systems. Acquisition of the required information necessitates a realistic mathematical description of the system. In this study, numerical analysis is performed for forced convective non‐Darcian, non‐isothermal compressible flow and heat transfer in cylindrical packed beds. Local structural and transport properties are considered. The influence of compressional work as well as viscous dissipation on the thermal field is evaluated and a general criterion provided for assessing the effect of expans